Reunions
by mewsugarpudd
Summary: Sequel to Learning about Leo. Throughout Leo's life, there were lots of people who had a huge impact on his life. And this story will have Leo meeting up with some of the best and worst people that Leo had to deal with through a series of oneshots. Of course, he'll have his friends and sibling to support him. What could go wrong?
1. Chapter 1

Here is the second sequel to Learning about Leo (you should definitely read that first). It will be a series of oneshots in which Leo sees people from his past again. They will contain spoilers for all books though. Also, this sequel is not connected to the other sequel. I hope that you enjoy it.

Disclaimer : I simply own the plot, and any unrecognisable characters.

* * *

Leo's P.O.V

It had been three weeks since Leo had flown back into the camp on a malfunctioning Festus and with a beautiful goddess sitting besides him.

After all of the tears, hugs, punches, etc, Leo had been confined to the infirmary for two weeks. According to Will Solace "he was exhausted, malnourished and a member of the literal walking dead, so his scrawny Latino butt best stay in that infirmary bed." Leo had complied when faced with death stares from the entire Apollo cabin, all of his siblings, Nico Di Angelo, Coach Head, Chiron and, of course, the seven.

Calypso threatening to not kiss him again if he broke out had nothing to do with it.

Finally, Leo had been released from the infirmary, only to be told that he was to do nothing strenuous which basically ruled out almost everything that Leo actually wanted to do.

Truthfully, he had enjoyed the week to catching up with everything that he had missed with the camps (apparently Nico was dating Will now, who would have guessed it?), but a lingering sick feeling resided within him, telling him that he was still dead and that this was all some sort of sick dream and any minute now he'd wake up to be sewn into Hades underwear - Percy had told him about what Hades clothes were made of.

And he could only take so many sing alongs before breaking.

So at the end of his "rest and recuperation" week, Leo had marched up to the big house, a trail of worried demigods (and one super hot goddess) following behind him and protesting that he should still be resting.

Leo had flung the door open, and blazed through, shouting that he was going stir crazy, and that if he wasn't allowed to go out of the camp then he was seriously going to kill someone.

Luckily, Chiron had agreed that Leo could go outside of the camp... if the rest of the seven accompanied him. He had asked if Calypso wanted to come along, but she had replied that just being in the camp had overwhelmed her enough, and that it would probably be best if she waited until she was a little more acclimatised before charging out into the big wide world.

Leo had been a little disappointed, he had been looking forwards to showing Calypso the wonders of modern society, but his desire to validate his status as a living being had overruled this and so they had agreed to head out the next day.

And here Leo was, breathing in New York's unique smell and frantically checking to make sure that people could see him. He also checked the date on the newspapers at every news stand that they passed.

He knew that his neurotic behaviour was worrying his friends, but Leo needed this. Needed to know that he was a card carrying member of the "I came back form the dead" club. He made a mental note to himself to ask if Hazel wanted to make badges for that later, and he was pretty sure that Frank had mentioned that when Percy was at Camp Jupiter with no memories, one of their centurions had died and came back. They could have an awesome club.

Leo snapped back to his senses as a hand clamped down on his shoulder. He flinched, years of being on the streets almost causing him to run, but then he noticed that it was just Jason, watching him with concern.

"You okay, Leo?" Leo forced himself to grin.

"Yep. You know what ADHD is like though, so many pretty, flashy lights to stare at."

"You were looking at your shoes." Piper's gaze cut through him, and Leo sighed. he shrunk in on himself a little bit, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans. He should have known that he wouldn't be able to lie to his friends, after they had all watched his memories they had become a lot more perceptive about when he was lying. There were still moments were Leo could fool them, though it was becoming rarer and rarer that he could actually deceive his friends.

Fingers clicked in front of his face, and Leo was brought back to reality again. This time it was Percy who was trying to get his attention. Leo sighed again. Looked like they would only settle for the truth this time. Hopefully a partial truth would do.

"I was just thinking."

"Well we all know how difficult that is for you, but it doesn't justify standing stock still like that in the middle of the street." Frank's words were mildly teasing, and Leo almost ignored the provocation when he realised that annoyed passers by had been shoving past him for quite some time now as he was rooted to the spot in the middle of a busy New York street. Leo suspected that the only reason for the fact that he hadn't been bowled over yet was due to his friends hovering around him protectively. He tried to shake off his mood as he retorted.

"Maybe my thoughts are just so advanced that it takes me some time to develop them." Leo winced, the reply had been weak, and that in itself was a neon warning sign that all was not right in Leo's world. His friends obviously caught on this sign as he was now being steered towards a coffee shop.

Thankfully it was a large coffee shop, and they had a table that all seven could sit at.

After Piper had bought them all drinks and snacks (she had used charmspeak to get them all to wait obediently whilst she paid, and Leo knew that more then one of them were a little affronted), they chatted casually, but the looks in their eyes told him that sooner or later he's have to confess what was up.

Piper was currently arguing with Percy over how she was willing to treat them all, when Leo noticed him enter.

Leo's eyes went wide.

The same dark brown hair, the same cat green eyes. The boy was taller obviously, and he had really filled out since Leo had last seen him, but the identity was unmistakeable.

Leo inhaled a ragged, shaky breath, and he became aware of his friends attention instantly turning to him.

It wasn't like a reunion in a movie, or in a book, where eyes meet across a crowded cafe and the two people hug and cry in the middle of a store whilst bystander either politely avert their eyes or cheer the two on.

Instead, Leo remained frozen in his chair as his friends frantically asked him what was wrong.

His eyes remained locked on the figure as the boy grabbed a cup of coffee, winking at the waitress how clearly knew the boy, before making his way out of the shop, contentedly sipping his coffee.

Leo debated whether or not he should follow the boy, but then something within him shouted go.

And Leo was sprinting out of the shop, drink forgotten. He knew that his friends were following him, but he needed to see his brother again. Leo had died. He had died and he wanted a hug form his brother damn it! Maybe he couldn't tell James everything that had happened to him, maybe James wouldn't even want to see him again, but Leo needed the confirmation that everything was okay. And he missed James.

Leo was fast, but the streets were busy, and he had to employ all of his old tricks to duck and weave around the people in his way. His friends were falling behind, and Leo did feel guilty about causing them even more stress, but he had to catch up.

Leo plunged through a pair of iron gates and hurtled down the park's path.

And there, on the bench, was James. The older boy took a small sip of the scalding liquid in the cup, but his head flicked to look at Leo when he came to a breathless, sweaty stop in front of him.

James' eyes flashed in recognition, and the cup was placed to the side carefully. James' eyes never left Leo's face though.

"Leo." He whispered, and Leo broke, flinging himself into the older boy's arms. He knew that it was wrong of him, that he didn't know if James hated him for running away, but in that moment it didn't matter.

Despite the growth spurt, James' arms felt the exact same as they had when they were younger.

A few minutes passed while the boys hugged in stunned silence, but then James was pulling away. Leo flushed in humiliation as he realised that he had just accosted the other boy with a hug when the other boy probably hadn't forgiven him for running away. James faced the ground, not looking at Leo, and Leo could feel the shame and guilt pricking his insides like thousands of tiny monsters were having a party in Leo's stomach and they'd forgotten to sheave their claws while dancing.

The silence between them became rapidly awkward as they stared at each other in wonder.

Leo's friends raced into the park, each cursing him loudly in numerous languages. James looked up then, and even though tears shone on his cheeks, his mouth curled upwards.

"Still causing trouble, eh taco snatcher?" Leo laughed gently as his friends skidded to a halt in front next to him. He knew that they had recognised James from their expressions. James flicked his gaze over Leo's friends who were all staring at him in shock , and then it landed back on Leo's face.

"Come on, we better move to somewhere where we can all sit together." He stated softly, wiping the tears from his cheeks with one hand, picking up his drink with the other.

They relocated to a grove of trees that was tucked nicely out of the way. They sat in a circle, Leo and James opposite each other.

"So..."

"Well..."

They spoke at the same time, and they fell back into awkward silence.

Then Leo decided to introduce everybody.

"James, this is Jason, Piper, Percy, Annabeth, Hazel and Frank. Everyone, this is James, the one I told you about." Leo pointed to each demigod in turn, and was glad that his friends caught on to the act.

"So is this who you've been with all this time?" James scanned the demigods, but not in a judging way. In fact, it was more as if he was trying to figure out how Leo had met such a diverse group of people.

"No, I bounced around the system for a while. But I've got a home now." While the demigods looked at him with joy at this comment, James' eyes clouded over, and Leo cursed himself for his carelessness.

"So you weren't at home with us?" The words were icy, and Leo flinched, scrambling to make up for his mistake.

"Yes I was, I loved staying with you! But I was messing everything up, and I had to leave..."

"No you didn't!" James' voice cracked like a whip and everyone jumped from the unexpected shout.

"We were terrified. Mom's never stopped blaming herself, and you were just eleven years old." James was now speaking in a barely audible tone, looking at the grass and viciously pulling out clumps.

"I'm sorry."

"I don't care!" All of his friends were glaring at this point, but James looked up and his eyes drilled into Leo's. Tears were streaming down his cheeks, and his coffee lay discarded.

"I never wanted an apology. I just wanted to know that you were safe." James lunged across the small space, and Leo was yanked into a brutal hug.

"You never called. And we would get calls every now and again, telling us about what was going on but they never told us if you were happy." Leo was crying slightly now, and his friends' glares had softened.

"I'm happy now. I'm safe with these guys. We live at this awesome camp were we can do a load of cool things." James breathed out softly.

"That's good." He drew back and sat next to Leo, arm still round Leo's shoulders.

"Sorry." He apologised, looking awkwardly at the others. They all accepted the apology easily, and Leo decided that it was his turn for answers.

"So what are you doing here in big old New York? I mean, you're twenty one now so you must be doing something interesting." James cheeks coloured.

"Well, after college I took a gap year, but I'm currently in my third year of studying to become a social worker." Leo smiled.

"That's a perfect job for you." James grinned, and ruffled Leo's hair.

"Well, after you left, I decided that I wanted to spend my life helping to find kids new homes that they would actually enjoy living in."

"I did enjoy living with you."

"I know." They talked for a long time, and Leo had the strange feeling that he was introducing one sibling to his others.

It was amazing being able to talk to James again, even though they hadn't seen each other in years, they still clicked.

That's why Leo's heart dropped when Annabeth informed him that they were approaching curfew, another condition for him being allowed to roam New York.

His friends said goodbye to James, and then they gave him some time to say goodbye properly. They stared at each other.

"I know that you said that you didn't want a n apology, but mine was sincere." James hugged him again, and Leo closed his eyes, burying his face into the soft material of his brother's shirt.

"I know. But brothers don't need to ask for forgiveness. I'm just happy that you've found such brilliant people to stay with." James rummaged in his pocket with one hand, before moving back a few paces, turning Leo's wrist towards him. Neatly, he printed his mobile number onto Leo's arm.

"In case you want to see me again." Leo moved his arm protectively to his chest.

"I'll definitely be calling you soon." And even though Leo knew that he could have just given James a piece of paper, Leo felt that having the words inked onto his skin provided a better connection.

So when Leo started doubting whether he was really alive or not, when the world of magic, monsters and Gods got too much for him, he'd have a link to reality to pull him back from the edge.

And the Gods knew that he needed it.

* * *

That's the first reunion, I hope that you enjoyed it, and I'm sorry if I got any school stuff wrong as I'm English and I don't know too much about American schools.


	2. Chapter 2

It looks like you guys are really enjoying both sequels, and I'm happy that you have chosen to stick with this story. And just a warning, this one is going to be a lot darker than the previous one, so if you are particularly sensitive then I would advise skipping this chapter. Thank you for all of the faves and follows.

Kittehx1: But his ex is dead (though that doesn't mean much in Percy Jackson ;) ).

DamnYouPeopleWithCoolUserNames : I'm sorry that you don't understand it. Basically Knowing Leo follows on pretty directly from LAL, the events from LAL will be pretty key to the plotline. This is more of a collection of oneshots based around Leo meeting people from his past again. I'm glad that you like both ideas though.

Melancholy's Sunshine : Thank you, and they could be pretty interesting ideas to explore so I might do a James part two or something.

B.E by Erin : Don't worry, all of those characters that you mentioned will come back.

Zoethezany III : Teehee, I'll take it that you like the idea J

QueenMoolace : Thank you, and I'm happy that you think I've started off well.

Sidda : Both of those will be in it later J And I've replied to that review as well.

Patrick : Thank you for the suggestion, and Teresa will definitely be making a reappearance.

Connwaer Heap : I liked James, he was one of my favourite OCs from LAL.

Cupcake Gal : Brotherly moments are so adorable.

Toolazyforname120 : I enjoyed the crossdressing as well. Jazz and Alvin will both be making an appearance in later chapters.

BlazingFlames22 : I didn't know that gap years were more common in England, and I hope that the PM cleared it up for you.

Guest : Ah, I'm sorry if I messed that up. Please just pass it of as a silly mistake if I did.

Disclaimer : Oh what wouldn't I do to own Leo Valdez.

* * *

Leo scowled fiercely as they flew on Festus over his home state. Jason was sitting directly behind him, and Nico was seated behind Jason. Leo had been looking forwards to a relaxed day in Bunker nine, and now he was flying back to Texas.

He still wasn't exactly sure why this event had come about.

He had been sitting at a table with the rest of the seven (Frank and Hazel had been visiting from Camp Jupiter) along with Nico Di Angelo. Suddenly, Rachel Dare had come staggering along, spewing green smoke.

He had been told that Zeus had granted Apollo "probationary forgiveness" (whatever that meant) in light of the war being won, and one of Apollo's first acts as a free God was to slay the beast that had been watching over the spirit of Delphi.

So Rachel's powers had been restored, and the future had apparently decided to mug her whilst Leo was trying to enjoy his toast. The prophecy had been as follows :

"The fire, the lightning and the child of the dead,

Must go forth in Hades' stead,

To remove the spirits from the Lone Star State,

And end a young girl's tragic wait."

That had certainly brightened up Leo's day, especially when the camp had unanimously decided that he must be fire whilst Jason and Nico must be lightning and the child of the dead respectively.

Nico had looked as murderous as Leo felt, though whether that was about the quest or the amount of paperwork that his father had been dealing with ever since the incident with the Doors of Death, and Jason appeared long suffering.

To be honest, Leo had been exhausted and fed up with being an errand boy for the Gods - he had died for them last quest - but he knew that he had to be the cheerful one.

So he had leapt up, declaring that he "loved nothing more than oh so cheerful prophecies served with his breakfast, before heading off to prep Festus for the flight.

The other delegates trudged after him, Jason mournfully eyeing his girlfriend and Nico appearing completely disinterested.

The ride so far had been in complete silence, and Leo had decided to just keep his concentration on flying Festus, instead of trying to probe the thoughts of his friends.

That's why he almost tumbled off when Jason spoke up.

"I wonder why me and Leo are needed for this quest. I mean, Nico makes sense, with it being spirits and all, but why us? Wouldn't Hazel have made more sense?" Leo subtly regained his position on the dragon, and shrugged slightly.

"I don't know, but I suppose that we'll find out when we get there. Speaking of getting there, you sensing anything death breath?" He could feel Nico's glare sizzling into his back, but the other demigod replied anyway despite his loathing for the nickname.

"We should land in about ten minutes, then we'll be within walking distance of the disturbance." The son of Hades replied, and Leo nodded, focusing on the watch that he had strapped onto his wrist for the journey.

After ten minutes had passed, Leo landed Festus carefully, eager to make a safe descent.

The three demigods clambered off of his back, and Leo patted him on the head.

"Remember, you hear the safety whistle, and you come flying to the rescue, fires-a-blazing." Festus nodded, huffing a small cloud of smoke into Leo's face. Leo was used to this, and the smoke didn't really bother him anymore anyway.

He did have to squash down some uncomfortable memories of a mid-air explosion though, and he silently prayed that his friends wouldn't pick up on the slight dip in the mood.

Stealthily, they made their way to wherever Nico's death senses where leading them. Leo gulped, and suddenly the reason for Jason's necessity on the quest became apparent.

Anemoi Thuellai swirled around madly, some retaining a vaguely human form whilst others were all horse.

Spirits of the dead danced between them, cackling madly and others wept on the ground.

The demigods turned towards each other, worry etched onto each of their faces. This task was not going to be easy.

"So, I'll take the Ventus while you take the spirits?" Leo nodded and then decided to try and lighten the mood a little.

"Yeah, you take the evil espressos while me and Nico take the dead people. Great." From the evil eye that came from both of his friends, Leo could tell that his humour wasn't appreciated at the moment.

They stood up, unsheathing their weapons (Leo had forged Jason a new sword) . Leo hefted his club hammers, and they charged into battle.

Leo felt guilty taking out the spirits who were sobbing, he had no clue why Gaia had let some of them out, but he was fine with taking out the spirits who were tearing around like maniacs.

The three worked in almost sync, with Leo and Nico smashing/slashing their way through spirits whilst Jason diverted the monstrous coffee drinks.

And then Leo heard a voice that caused him to freeze, almost having his head torn off by a particularly rowdy spirit if it wasn't for Nico's intervention.

"Valdez!" Nico chided, but Leo was too busy trying to locate the source of that voice to concentrate on his friend's chastising words.

Leo finally spotted her, kneeling at the fringe of the sobbing group of spirits. Face stained by tears, eyes ringed in black. And in her arms, the spirit of a baby began to wail, as if sensing the distress of it's mother.

Layla rose slowly, eyes locked onto Leo's. Leo walked towards her, almost in a trance.

Nico tried to yank him back, but Leo dodged his outstretched hand with ease, cutting down any spirit that happened to stray into his path.

"Layla." He muttered, and he heard Jason curse.

"The fields of Asphodel were so lonely, Leo." Layla glided towards him, the spirit of her unborn child nestled into her arms.

Her youthful face contrasted the haunted eyes that stared at Leo desperately.

"I couldn't even remember who I was, who my child was. But my patron, she woke me up, and promised that I would see you again if I fought with her. And then she lost!" Maniacal laughter followed this statement. Leo shuddered, and then the battle tailed of behind him.

Jason leapt forwards and grabbed his arm. Layla hissed.

"I was free though, free to come here and wait for you. The boy who cared for me even after I betrayed him with another, even after I conceived with another." Nico's hand wrapped around his other arm.

"Leo, don't listen to her, we have to send her back. Gaia has turned her into a Mania."

"You don't understand!" Leo ripped his arm out of his friends' grip.

"Leo..." Jason trailed off sadly, but Leo didn't care.

Layla was crying again.

"I still love you Leo. And I know that you still love me. Stay with me. Don't make me go back to that place of endless nothingness." She pleaded, her voice as lost as the night when she had turned up on his doorstep, pregnant and terrified. Leo had never dealt with her crying well.

"Please don't cry, Layla." He begged. Suddenly, Jason lunged forwards, and Leo saw the flash of a blade bearing down on a wide eyed and helpless Layla and her defenceless baby.

The blade fell, but instead of ghosting through the spirit of Layla, it instead bit deep into flesh.

Leo gasped in pain, and Jason drew back in alarm, eyes horrified and glued to the wound marked on Leo's flesh from the very blade that he had gifted to his friend.

"Le...Leo!" Jason stuttered in shock and a twinge of shame and regret danced beneath the utterance.

Leo turned away from the terrified eyes of his friends and looked deeply into the eyes of his first girlfriend. The beautiful, crazed eyes of his first love.

A crystalline teat slid down his cheek as he stared at the wraith that was once a young girl.

she didn't seem to realise that Leo was crying from emotional pain instead of physical, as she moved in and gently sealed their lips together in a kiss.

Leo's mind buzzed as an image of Layla, alive and so very in love with him sprang into his mind. The image shrieked for Leo to move, and he did, leaping backwards just in time to avoid his heart being pierced by a small, previously concealed dagger.

The insane eyes followed his movements as the spirit cackled.

"Join me forever, Leo." She lunged forwards again, and Leo cart wheeled away. His friends moved to attack, but he shouted at them to leave it to him.

"Sorry Layla, but I can't join you yet." The crazed laugh reached an even more painful pitch.

"Your name is already scrawled on Death's list. He claimed your soul once, if you choose to stay with me then I can keep your soul here forever. We can avoid true death forever!" Leo shook his head.

"Oh Layla, nothing good ever comes from cheating death." He murmured. And then her eyes flashed from the needy, emptiness that they had been previously to a deep burning rage.

"Yet you have died and come back. Are their different rules for demigods? Am I not good enough to walk again?" Leo flinched at this, while his friends snarled.

"I died at fifteen*, and my child died also. Yet you get to live again while I had to stay in that dreary prison for what felt like an eternity! If you ever loved me, you'd save me from that place. But even when you found out that it was possible to bring back spirits from the dead, your thoughts didn't turn to me." The spirits words were slightly garbled at this point as she raved, and Leo realised with absolute sorrow that Layla was a spirit of revenge as well as being a Mania.

Another image of Layla flickered into his head. She was mouthing something at him, but he refused to believe what she was telling him to do. There had to be another way! There had to be or... or he didn't know what he'd do.

"I couldn't Layla..."

"WHY NOT!" She screamed, eyes wild and dangerous. She hurtled towards him again, baby in one arm and dagger in the other.

The image came into his head suddenly, with blinding intensity.

"I'm sorry." The fragment of Layla whispered as Leo felt a blade enter his stomach. His demigod instincts kicked in before the blade could lodge to deeply, the wound was incredibly shallow.

He whirled the blade forwards, plunging it deeply into the spirit of the wraith.

Her eyes widened in complete disbelief, and Leo instantly removed the blade, a guttural noise of despair emanating from his throat.

His friends, who had both shouted out when the blade cut Leo, now ran forwards to support Leo as he fell to his knees, dagger soiled with hi sown blood falling to the ground.

Layla's spirit sparkled in front of him for a moment, and the insane look filtered out of her eyes.

"Thank you." She smiled at Leo radiantly, and he choked on his tears.

"Layla..."

"I'm free from the insanity now."

"But you became a Mania, your soul." Her eyes turned sad, and she turned to Nico.

"Will you return my child safely to the underworld, please?" Nico nodded dumbly, and Leo shook with tears.

"You'll go to the Fields of punishment!" He wailed, and Layla grimaced at him, before brushing away a stray tear and kissing him softly.

"I became a monster Leo. I would be grateful if that was indeed my destination, but that is not where monsters go." Leo went cold, refusing to belief that Layla would go to Tartarus. Too many of his friends had suffered there. He knew what he had to do.

"I'll turn myself in to Thanatos! Hazel traded her place in Elysium away to keep her mom safe, I can do the same for you." Jason mad ea nose of protest, but Layla laughed gently.

"I don't deserve your help. You're a hero Leo. Just not mine." Leo wiped away some of his tears, and he shook his head resolutely. Nico's voice surprised him.

"If she comes with me willingly then I can return her to the Field's of Asphodel where she belongs. She has caused no real harm on this plain, and her madness was partially a result of Gaia's meddling. As the son of Hades, I can call in a few favours." Leo's spirits rose, and he tackled Nico in a hug.

"Thank you."

He then turned towards Layla, who was watching them in shock. She smiled, but her eyes brimmed with tears.

"You were always too good for me, Leo." She whispered, and Leo pulled her into a final kiss.

"I never thought that." And then Nico grabbed Layla and her child.

"At least we get to say goodbye this time." Leo's eyes welled up as he said his final goodbye.

And then Leo was left, sobbing into Jason's arms.

* * *

Waah, I'm really sorry for how dark that was! The mood just struck me, and I kind of went with it. There may be an aftermath for this some time in the future, but for now, Layla's reunion is over.


	3. Chapter 3

Last chapter ended up a lot darker then I expected, so this one should be quite fluffy in contrast :) I'm grateful for all of your faves/follows and I hope that you enjoy this chapter as well.

Zoethezany III : But at least she didn't g to Tartarus... I don't think that that makes it any better, does it?

Killua minamoto : Even if you think that I deserve them and shouldn't have to thank you for them, I still have to because all of your reviews are so kind. I'm glad that you like my writing style, and yep, Leo is very unlucky.

BlazingFlames22 : Teehee :)

Kittehx1 : I didn't just destroy your OTP did I?

Melancholy's Sunshine : Ooh, I might have to write that into a later chapter.

QueenMoonlace : I am really mean to both Leo and my OCs...

Cupcake Gal : I hope that you get better soon. And I'm sorry for making you cry.

Matt : All of those characters will be having their own chapters.

The Steaming Cactus : Yes I am, and it shouldn't be too long before you get it :)

Guest : I hope that this is soon enough for you.

Connwaer Heap ; I'm happy that you liked my rhyme, and Leo was chosen because he was fated to meet Layla again (blame Aphrodite).

Patrick : I'm evil because I write fanfiction and all fanfiction writers have a hidden evil side ;) Sorry for making you cry though.

1HoWillSayUnkown : Thank you, and they will both make a reappearance in a later chapter.

Sidda : Well I'll answer to both here then :) I love that song as well, it really does suit Leo. And Jadon will be making his return. Why do you think that you have lost your reviewing touch?

Our Mismatched Socks : Yes she did, and although she did love the other boy, she loved Leo as well and always felt regret over what she did to him. And I'm glad that you like this story as much as my others.

Epiphany Aria Grace : I'm hoping that that's a good wow.

IraTamashi99AmyliaZanpakuto : I write what would make me sad, maybe that's how I manipulate everyone else's emotions. And it makes me happy to hear that you were looking forward to more of my work.

ObsessedwReading : Thank you, and I'm glad that you enjoyed both chapters.

Disclaimer : Still. Not. Mine. Sob.

* * *

Leo's hands were clenched into annoyed fists as he gently steered Festus. The air was filled with the merry chatter of his friends and his girlfriend, but Leo wasn't exactly in the mood to join in with them.

He had been planning this for a while, a nice trip around America with Calypso where he could introduce her to the modern world. No astounded looks from campers who were still in shock over Leo's reappearance at camp, no fussing siblings and most of all no friends whose attempts to be compassionate had started to really annoy Leo after about two days.

It wasn't that he didn't care about his friends, or that he wasn't touched at how they were trying to look after him, but Leo was fed up with how so many people were focussed on his death despite the fact that he was back.

So yeah, Leo had been looking forwards to a little alone time with his girlfriend, maybe just a week or two of flying to different American states. He had been so excited when he had went up to the big house to ask Chiron if it would be alright for him to leave the camp for a little while. And then his hopes had been dashed when Chiron stated that it was perhaps not the best idea for Leo to leave the camp so soon.

Apparently, a lot of monsters were still gunning for the seven and if they realised that Leo Valdez, the demigod who had made Gaia explode, was back and better than ever then they might just have a teensie weensie problem that would have to be resolved with Leo dying. Again. And permanently this time.

So Leo's plans had seemingly been thwarted. But then Chiron had offered up another solution.

If Leo took two of his friends along with Calypso then Chiron would sanction the trip.

And so Leo had had to reason out which friends would be least troublesome to take. None of his siblings really enjoyed leaving the camp so they were out as Leo didn't want to make them feel as if they had to join him.

Usually, his first choice for anything like this would have been Jason and Piper, but Piper had the disturbing habit of going into Aphrodite mode whenever anything romantic happened between any of their friendship group, and Leo was not willing to put up with the fangirling as he tried to get Calypso used to America. Plus, crazy paparazzi people had the occasional habit of accosting Piper and Leo did not want to introduce Calypso to that level of insanity.

Jason was still an option though, so Leo noted that down.

Percy and Annabeth were instantly eliminated from Leo's "who gets to chaperone me and my girlfriend list". The reason was obvious, the tension would kill them all. Calypso was still a little angry at Percy, Annabeth would be the tiniest bit jealous and Percy would switch between trying to placate both girls.

That left Frank, Hazel, Nico and Jason as his short list.

After much deliberation, Leo had decided that it would probably be best to ask Jason and Hazel to accompany them.

Frank was really busy lately with praetor duties which meant that Hazel would be feeling a little neglected and up for a trip. And Nico was starting a relationship with Will, and Leo wasn't going to interrupt that as Nico was shy enough already and needed all the encouragement that Will could give him to stay in the relationship without feeling awkward.

Thankfully, Calypso, Jason and Hazel all agreed, though Calypso was a bit disappointed at the change in plans.

"Hazel." Jason called out to him suddenly. Whilst Leo had been flying Festus his body had been on autopilot as his mind wondered, but he was now firmly back in reality.

"What's up?" He tried to keep his voice neutral and to shake of the lingering irritation at being treated like a little kid.

"There's a mortal family down there being attacked by monsters!" Leo cursed and instantly sent Festus into a dive that would allow them to come to the family's rescue.

They swooped down, and Leo landed Festus with practised ease.

The sight was pretty overwhelming. The adults were both knocked out and a young, mortal girl of about eleven was standing in front of them, desperately fending off monster attacks with a branch. Tears streamed down her face and blood was encrusted on many parts of her body, but she still fought bravely to defend the couple behind her.

A picnic basket lay slightly further away from the child and it became horrifyingly clear to Leo that this family had just been trying to enjoy an innocent outing together.

The demigods instantly jumped into the fray, fending off the monsters and cutting down as many as they could.

It didn't take too long, after all, four trained fighters against a handful of mostly low level monsters didn't require much effort.

Once the last monster had been slain, the golden dust still twinkling in the evening sun, Leo turned towards the young child.

A gasp was wrenched from his lips as he observed the state that she was in.

Her legs had collapsed now that there was no danger, and she was now on her knees panting heavily. Blood coated certain areas of her body, but the wounds at least seemed to have stopped bleeding so the red was mostly dry.

Jason and Hazel went to check the parents, and the girl's breath hitched as she attempted to heft the branch again.

She looked up warily as her arms struggled to raise her impromptu weapon, and Leo inhaled sharply as her long hair fell away from her face revealing sparkling eyes that glinted with determination.

She was taller than he remembered, and her face had matured some, but Leo could still recognise the girl in front of him.

"Is that you Sparkle?" Her eyes snapped to him, and shock took over her face. The branch fell from her fingers as she gaped at him.

"Leo!" She squealed after a second of staring, and she made as if to launch into his arms, but changed her mind as she glanced back at her still unconscious parents. The couple who had adopted her had not yet woken up, and Leo knew that all three of the regular humans needed treatment.

"Sparkle, my friends can help your parents, but you have to trust me and let them."

Sparkle's eyes flicked between her parents and Leo, and then she nodded, struggling to her feet and moving out of the way so that the others could check on her parents. Leo had to lunge forwards and catch her though as she almost toppled over again.

Calypso joined Jason and Hazel after Leo handed her some medical supplies from his belt, yet her eyes lingered on Leo and Sparkle curiously for a moment. She had not been present at that strange time during the quest where Hera had forced everybody to watch his memories so she didn't know who Sparkle was.

"What where those things?" She inquired, eyes searching Leo's. Leo cradled her body closer as he debated what to tell her. He also idly noticed that it still felt right to be hugging his little sister figure despite the fact that she was eleven, no longer the sweet, innocent five year old that he had known.

"They kept changing. First they looked like thugs and that's what mommy and daddy saw them as, but then they looked like monsters." Leo scrambled to cobble together a decent answer, but he was saved momentarily by his friends' reports on the state of Sparkle's parents.

"Their both okay, though they may have to be checked out for a concussion." Leo smiled, relieved that the people to whom he had entrusted the young girl were safe. Then he turned back to the problem at hand, though he did notice that Sparkle appeared a lot more relaxed once Jason had affirmed that her parents would be okay.

"They were monsters." Leo eventually chose to go with the truth, ignoring the looks that he got from the others for saying this.

Sparkle tensed up again, and Leo started to deal with her wounds using supplies from his belt still.

"Monsters? Like the ones in those tales you used to tell me before bed?" Leo nodded as he tenderly bandaged up one of the worst wounds. Calypso joined him, but Jason and Hazel sat back to keep an eye on the adults.

"Yes. They don't usually attack normal people though." Sparkle's gaze turned even more confused.

"Normal people?" Leo winced as he realised that he was probably going to have to stretch the truth a little bit to assure Sparkle that she was safe without blowing her mind by revealing that the Gods were real.

"Well, some people are chosen to fight these monsters and they keep everyone safe. I'm one of those people and so are my friends here." The others clearly approved of that explanation as they grinned and waved at the child.

"Why couldn't mom and dad see them as monsters then?" Leo finished wrapping up another wound, and pulled out a box of band aids out of his tool belt for the smaller scrapes. He smiled inwardly when he realised that they were Bob the Builder band aids.

"The monsters appear as whatever most humans can see as plausible. The people who fight them see through it more often than not though." Sparkle's eyes turned fearful, with the slightest hint of excitement held in their crystalline depths.

"Does that mean that I'll have to fight them now?" Leo shook his head instantly, and watched as the fear turned to relief and a spark of disappointment.

"No, some humans are just special enough to see through their disguises even if they aren't destined to fight them." Sparkle accepted that explanation, lying back into his arms as he placed a band aid onto the final cut. Her eyelids were slowly drooping.

"I missed you." She muttered drowsily, and Leo whispered it back as she drifted to sleep, the day's events obviously taking their toll on the young girl.

Leo now sat in a hospital with Jason, Hazel and Calypso. He shot Calypso a rueful grin.

"Sorry about this." She rolled her eyes at him.

"You don't have to be sorry about wanting to find out if someone you see as a sister is alright." When they had flew here on Festus, Leo had filled Calypso in on his back story with Sparkle.

They'd had fun once they had reached the hospital, somehow managing to convince the staff that they had found the small family being attacked by thugs and as they were all studying martial arts, they had saved the family by fighting the thugs away.

They had had to make up descriptions of the thugs of course, and Leo only hoped that they at least somewhat matched whatever Sparkle's parents had seen.

They should have really left after they had seen the trio to safety (they didn't want to draw too much attention to themselves after all), but Leo couldn't just leave Sparkle.

So his friends had all agreed to wait, and Leo found himself once again thinking about how annoyed he had been when he had been forced to bring chaperones. And he grimaced as he realised that today could have gone a lot worse if it wasn't for the extra hands that his friends had provided.

"Thanks." He muttered, and he knew that they had all understood when they all smiled at him.

A nurse appeared and announced that they could visit Sparkle for a short while, but that they really couldn't stay long as Sparkle needed rest after such a traumatising day.

Of course, the nurse used Alice's given name, but Leo mentally translated it to Sparkle as easily as he translated Spanish to English and vice versa.

He looked at his friends nervously, and hey waved him on with encouraging grins.

Leo followed the nurse, anxiously making paper hats with sheets of coloured paper that he retrieved from his tool belt.

And then he was staring at a somewhat groggy Sparkle who beamed at the sight of him. And it was as if they had never been apart.

Leo sashayed forwards, and placed his latest creation (a multi-coloured crown) on top of Sparkle's head in and over exaggerated manner.

"Princess Sparkle, you should never forget your crown." His one was pompous, and Sparkle burst into giggles. The nurse was also trying to fight a smile as she made sure that Leo didn't agitate Sparkle. Sparkle schooled her features as well as she could into a more sombre, regal expression.

"I am sorry my faithful knight. Perhaps I should glue it to my head so that I cannot forget it." Leo nodded in mock thought.

"A most sensible suggestion princess Sparkle, however I must object to you ruining your glorious hair with a substance such as glue." They stared at each other solemnly for half a second before they both cracked up. Leo could even hear the nurse hiding a laugh behind a fake cough.

They gave each other brief summaries of their lives (Leo left out anything particularly distressing) after they had lost contact with each other.

And then angry voices could be heard in the hallway.

"We must see our daughter at once!" Sparkle gasped.

"Mommy!" She exclaimed, before she attempted to scramble off of the bed. Leo pushed her back down gently as the nurse left to fetch Sparkle's parents.

A minute later, her parents barged in and pulled her into a hug.

They talked between themselves for a minute, but then they noticed Leo. At the suspicious looks that he was being given, Leo raised his hand in a (hopefully) friendly wave.

"Hi." And then they seemed to recognise him as the boy who used to look after Sparkle as he was getting his own hugs too.

The nurse returned and filled the adults in on what had happened, making sure to mention that they had been saved by Leo and his friends. The Shields then insisted that the others be brought in so that they could thank them properly.

At the end of that experience, all of the demigods were blushing deeply and Sparkle was giggling at his expression of embarrassment.

But all good things had to end, and Leo knew that they would have to leave soon.

He leaned in and kissed Sparkle's forehead softly.

"It was good to see you again Sparkle." He turned and went to follow his friends out, but a small hand suddenly gripped his wrist.

"You can't leave, we've only just found each other again!" She wailed, and her parents nodded. But Leo knew that his leaving was inevitable.

"I've got to go. I'm sorry." Sparkle's eyes welled up, and Leo's heart wrenched. And then Mrs Shield was shoving something into his hand.

"My number. Call whenever you want, Alice really cares about you." Sparkle nodded emphatically at this, and Leo snickered.

"Of course." He said a final goodbye, and left the room.

And although he was saying goodbye to her, he still felt light inside. Because that scrap of paper in his hand told him that it wasn't the last time that he would see his little sister figure.

* * *

So that was hopefully a lot more cheerful and fluffy then the previous one :) I hope that you enjoyed it, and I'm looking forwards to next time.


	4. Chapter 4

Guys, I'm so sorry that this is late. For some reason I just lost a little bit of motivation but I'm back now and I'm hopefully going to be more consistent with my updates in the future. As an apology, this chapter and next chapter will be a two parter where more than one character is reunited with Leo. The next part will be up on Wednesday or Thursday instead of the weekend. I hope that it makes up for my shameful behaviour. And there is a general warning for this chapter and next about gang violence.

Killua minamoto : Sorry but Rosa and Teresa will be a little further on in the story, but they will definitely both be appearing. And I don't want you to change, you're an amazing reviewer as you are.

Sidda : Oh, both are incredibly attractive, it's so hard to choose! I'd love to see a dragon Leo though... I mean, he'd be all predatory and everything, and that would be very hot.

IraTamashi99AmyliaZanpakuto : Thank you, and I really like this one as well. It was a lot more cheerful than most of my writing.

ObsessedwReading : Thank you :)

Melancholy's Sunshine : I like the way you think :) All of the characters that you just mentioned will be coming back, and if you don't mind then I might borrow one or two of those ideas.

Kittehx1 : The others will make sure that he doesn't forget.

Gavroche Is Life Itself : Thanks :)

Patrick : Normally it will be on the weekend, but this week it will be Wednesday or Thursday as well as the weekend.

Zoethezany III : Gotta love fluff.

Connwaer Heap : Sparkle is adorable. And yep, she is like those two.

Our Mismatched Socks : Thanks, Sparkle is a little sweetie.

Skyfir3S4kur4 : I'm glad that you are enjoying it, and Jadon will be back soon.

Epiphany Aria Grace : Thank you, and I'm happy to hear that you enjoyed it.

Epicawesomen00b : Yay, I enjoy overwhelming fluff :) And Sparkle being clear sighted is awesome for Leo. I hope that you have a great day as well.

Alvin6299 : I'm sorry for making you wait so long :(

Disclaimer : Unfortunately, Leo Valdez still isn't my property.

* * *

Leo sat curled up in Bunker nine. Everyone else had left for dinner at the camp fire, but Leo had stayed behind. He knew that they were probably worried about him, and he felt guilty for lying and saying that he would be right behind them when he had no intention of leaving the bunker at all.

They had all been working away at lots of different projects when Harley had ran up to him with a huge grin. His little brother had pressed an amazing ring into his hands. The ring had the initials of all of their siblings and a flame decal ran through it. When Leo had asked Harley why he had made it for him, Harley had beamed up at him and said that it was for protecting them all.

Leo had thanked his brother profusely, and he really did love the ring, it just brought up memories of another ring that he had yet to claim.

That's why he was now huddled up in the bunker. He desperately wanted to track down Jadon, Cedric, Darien, Aura and the others but it had been so long and Leo didn't know what they'd think if he turned up again. Darien and Cedric had been really angry with him before he left and he knew that Aura and Jadon had been seriously hurt by it.

Leo didn't know if they were all still together though. And that mixed him up inside even more. He was torn between longing for them all to still be together and hoping that they had all gotten of the streets. It was a horrendous mindset, and Leo had hidden himself away in the bunker so that no one would have to put up with his mood.

"Leo? Are you still in here?" He should have known that someone would come looking for him anyway.

He curled into an even tighter ball and hoped that whoever was searching for him would miss the spot where he was hiding.

No such look.

Leo heard someone flop down in front of him and buried his head further into his arms, praying that the embarrassing trembling in his shoulders would cease.

"Leo, what's wrong?" Piper placed a hand on his shoulder, and Leo looked up. He knew that he must have looked pretty pathetic as Piper winced before pulling him into a hug.

Leo held out the ring that he had been given, and Piper stared at it bemusedly before it clicked.

"Oh Leo." She hugged him again.

"I miss them." Piper rocked back on her heels, and Leo realised that the rest of the seven had obviously been hunting for him as well as they had gathered behind Piper, staring at him sadly.

Leo flushed a little in humiliation, they had seen him like this enough whilst watching the stupid videos.

"Then I think it's time that we found them." Leo gazed at the determination in each of their faces. And then he smiled softly.

"That's if Chiron will let us go." Piper's hand clenched his as she pulled him up.

"He will." She whispered.

In the end, Chiron had agreed to let them go on the condition that they travelled like mortals instead of demigods. He didn't want them to draw to much attention, any more than seven demigods would draw anyway.

So they had travelled like a group of normal teens, catching buses and trains. Percy absolutely refused to get in a plane even when Jason had tried to convince him that Zeus wouldn't shoot down a plane with his own son in it.

That made the journey a lot longer than it would otherwise have been. Leo didn't know whether to resent waiting longer or to feel relief at having more time to organise his thoughts.

The others had been giving him some space, and he was grateful for that, but he still had no clue how they were going to find the gang if it had dispersed.

They finally reached a hotel near to the location of the gang when Leo had been there.

They checked in hurriedly and went up to their rooms. There was a room for the girls and a room for the boys. Piper had paid and Leo was really thankful to her for how much she was dedicating to finding his old gang, how much they were all dedicating to helping him out.

Everyone convened in the boy's room to plan out what was going to happen.

"Okay, we're going to head over to the abandoned construction sight first and if we don't see any of them there then we'll head over to their old headquarters." Annabeth immediately took charge, and Leo was fine with that.

Their luggage was dropped of into the rooms before they set of in search of the old construction sight.

Leo's feet easily took him towards it, he had memorised these streets as a kid and the knowledge apparently hadn't faded.

Or maybe it had.

Leo took a deep breath as he stared up at the giant office block built on the land of the old construction sight.

He touched one of the perfect walls silently.

"Is this..." Leo nodded before Jason could finish his question. It looked as if someone had finally gotten around to clearing up the site and building something there.

His breath caught at this visual representation of how the city had moved on without him. Things had changed since he was ten, and Leo was terrified at the thought that the gang might be totally gone.

He felt a reassuring hand grasp his shoulder and sent a shaky smile at Frank.

"Come on, let's go and check the old hideout." Leo refused to be beaten here, not after getting this far. The others agreed, and they turned to walk away, leaving behind the clean, efficient office block that had taken over the gang's old free running space.

Leo's breathing got more and more strained as they got closer and closer to where the hideout used to be.

Leo began to panic. What if that building had been knocked down as well? It had been abandoned far longer than the construction sight had been.

A cool hand (though technically everyone's hands were colder than his) slipped between his fingers, entwining them with theirs.

Hazel squeezed his hand lightly and his breathing became a little less laboured.

And then the building came into view. It was still standing, and it looked the exact same as when Leo had last seen it. His knees almost buckled in relief.

Then he noticed two boys standing guard outside of it's doors who were eyeing the demigod group suspiciously.

Leo had no clue why they'd have stationed guards, the only time the gang had gotten into trouble had been the time when he fought the other gang, and that had all been cleared up.

One of the kids was around twelve and the other seemed to be fourteen.

"Guys, wait here please." The others made noises of protest and Leo waved them off before jogging over to the boys who tensed at his approach. Leo raised his hands in the universal sign for not wanting trouble, and the twelve year old scrutinised him for a minute. Then his jaw dropped.

"Leo!" The boy squeaked before breaking away from his post and wrapping his arms around Leo.

It was then that Leo recognised the boy, the first person to receive his pamphlet about gay gang leader adoptive fathers.

"Hey Alec." Leo grinned and held up his hand. He knew that his friend's probably thought that he had just been attacked and were more than likely gearing uo to brawl with the young boys.

The fourteen year old stared at him haughtily as Alec broke away from him, eyes shining.

"Do you want me to fetch the leaders Alec?" The teen deferred to the younger boy for some reason, waiting until Alec said yes to run into the complex.

Leo waved his friends to come forwards as Alec bombarded him with more questions then even he could handle.

And then the other sentry as scrambling out followed by two other people.

One of the new arrivals was a young man of twenty one, the other a young girl of eleven.

Leo almost choked on his own spit at the scar on the man's face. It was underneath his eye, barely, and it cut across to his ear.

But Leo could still recognise both of the figures.

"Darien. Aura." Both sets of eyes widened, and Leo shifted in the awkward silence.

And then a fist was launched into his face and Leo was falling backwards.

Luckily, Percy managed to catch him before his head attempted to make friends with the floor.

"What the hell?" Percy hissed, but Leo yanked himself out of his friend's arms to face Darien.

That turned out to be more painful than the punch as the siblings were both crying softly whilst holding hands.

"The prodigal has returned at a very bad time." Darien muttered, before turning on his heel and walking into the compound.

He gestured for everyone to follow him and the demigods obliged.

As they walked in, children and teens of all ages could be spotted bustling around. Some looked banged up whilst others seemed to be sparring. It was like a less official Camp Half blood and it hurt Leo's heart to see the gang acting like they were in the middle of a war.

Some of the gang members clearly recognised Leo and an excited buzz spread through the building as people statred to gawk at him as if he was a legend.

Two people remained conspicuously absent though.

Neither Jadon nor Cedric were amongst the crowd of familiar faces.

Leo started out of his headcount when Aura ushered them all into a makeshift meeting room.

They all sat down, but Cedric still didn't appear.

Leo wondered if the two were so angry at him for leaving them hat they weren't even going to come and check up on him. Leo quickly appraised Darien and Aura. Darien had always been the calmer leader, the more compassionate, but his mouth was currently pulled in a taut line despite the shimmering tears in his eyes. And little Aura, who had always appeared wiser then her years, had a weary look as if she were exhausted.

Leo was not liking this at all. Most of it was starting to click in his head, and he wanted to scream with frustration. He had allowed himself to beat up so that the gang would be safe, yet it looked as if they were in the middle of a gang war.

He had just ended a war and now he had walked right back into another one.

Silence still smothered the occupants of the room, though Darien looked to be bracing himself for this inevitable conversation.

Leo beat him to it.

"Where's Jadon and Cedric?" The previously unshed tears spilled from both Darien's and Aura's eyes.

"Cedric is in prison. And Jadon is missing."

* * *

So remember that the normal update schedule will be every weekend, but there will be two chapters next week to make up for how long it took me to write this one. See you all for part two :)


	5. Chapter 5

So here is part two of the gang reunion. I hope you enjoy finding out what happened in Leo's absence :) And I don't know if my legal knowledge is right, especially as I'm from the Uk not america so please just ignore it if I get any legal stuff wrong. And I'm sorry, but this is turning into a three parter. The next part will be up on the weekend though.

Kittehx1 : You didn't enjoy the cliffhanger then ;)

Connwaer Heap : Yeah, Zeus can be cruel like that. And nope, it's not good though you'll have to wait and see whether or not your guess is right.

Skyfir3S4kur4 : I adore cliffhangers :) I'm happy that you like it anyway even if it was me being evil with it.

Matt : Teehee, I should have wrote Leo doing that.

Alvin6299 : Thank you, and that's why I love writing about Leo, so many people (both in real life and in the books) don't recognise all that he's been through and how amazing he is.

Melancholy's Sunshine : That's really generous, thank you. And reviewers like you are amazing, people who are willing to share their ideas with others so must commend you for that. I'm glad that you are looking forwards to this :) And a son of Vulcan...nope. Hehe, you'll be surprised though.

Nightcorelover297 : I'm glad that someone appreciates my cliffhangers ;)

Sidda : I would love a dragon Leo so much. And I agree that Gryffindor is the divergent house so I would probably be in there as I think that I have a little bit of every house. As for the pairings thing, Ron is my favourite character so I'd have to go with Ron/Hermione but I'm more of a yaoi fangirl anyway. I don't really like Harry/Ginny though, it just seems awkward to me.

Notreallyonhere : I will definitely write a lot more, and thank you for saying that I'm good at this.

Disclaimer : Still not mine. Sadly.

* * *

Leo felt as if the ground had dropped out from underneath him. Sure, Cedric had always had some violent tendencies but he had never done anything really jail worthy before. Well, he had stolen quite a lot, but the older boy had always been too good to get caught. And Jadon... Jadon was missing. He had hoped that Jadon would be safer if he left him here and instead the boy had vanished. Tears welled up in Leo's eyes but he brushed them away impatiently.

"What happened?" His question was stern as his eyes darted between Darien and Aura. Darien's fist clenched.

"It's a long story."

"Then talk fast, but we have all night." Leo folded his arms, he was going to find out what had happened one way or another but he would prefer to find out from these two then from gossip-mongering lackeys.

Aura wrapped an arm around Darien's shoulders as he took a shuddering breath to steady his nerves.

"Two days after we yelled at you for fighting those scummy idiots, Aura handed me and Cedric a note. You'd been really quiet the day before and you'd disappeared around lunch time but we figured that you were going to go and practise your free running so when Aura handed us the note we could only tell it was bad news by the look on her face." Aura's eyes tilted to the floor then and her older brother hugged her gently.

"The note..." Darien's voice caught and he took anther soothing breath before continuing. "The note showed us that we had both been stupid jerks, but also that you were even stupider than us." Leo felt a flash of anger and was about to complain but Darien raised a hand and Leo was silenced inn the same way as when he was ten.

"You were going to leave and it broke our hearts. You were the soul of the gang, everybody loved you. We were certain that Jadon was going to be destroyed by the news and then we found out that both Aura and Jadon had known that you were going. We were furious with all three of you." Leo watched the way Darien's grip tightened apologetically around Aura's hand with great sadness. She, along with Jadon, had obviously got into a lot of trouble for hiding his secret for him.

"We searched for you for weeks, panicked and afraid, yet there was no sign of you." Leo flinched at this, he hadn't expected them to search for him for so long. A day or two maybe, but certainly not for weeks.

Darien continued.

"And then we came across a bunch of louts from Cruella's gang. They were bragging about how the little piece of crap who had beaten them up had finally got what he deserved and how they wished that they could have gotten a few hits in." A few of the demigods growled then, and Darien seemed to swiftly appraise them before picking up from where he left off.

"Well, you know Cedric's temper. I tried to stop him, but he was so furious that he even took a swing at me when I tried to prevent him from beating the group up. I was furious with them myself but I understood instantly that you had allowed yourself to take the fall to prevent the gang being dragged into war. I really didn't agree with that decision, but I also didn't want to let your sacrifice to go to waste." Leo's head was spinning, Cedric had almost hit _Darien_! Darien, his best friend and also his boyfriend. Leo felt sick knowing that he had caused all of this mess. Because it was swiftly becoming apparent that whatever was happening with the gang right now was his fault.

"He wiped them all out, he was just so angry. But once they were all bloody, unconscious messes, he looked down at the blood splattered on his clothes and seemed to choke. I got him back to the den, but he was clearly in shock. Aura and Jadon met us at the door, but Jadon had been frosty with us for a while and he didn't say a word as he patched Cedirc up. Once he was finished he stalked out. I tried to send Aura away but she refused to leave." Darien ruffled the girl's hair and she swatted him. Despite the horror Leo felt due to this tale, he had to smile at the siblings antics.

"We realised ten that we were in deep crap. Not only had one of our gang leaders beat up a group of Cruella's followers, the other hadn't stopped him. And they wouldn't just accept a beating this time, this time they'd be out for blood. We didn't want to drag everybody into a gang war, but we also couldn't leave them all. Aura was smart enough to lead them but she was way too young back then. We decided that we should let everyone decide themselves. And they all chose to fight rather then give us up. Cedric and I took the cowardly route while you took the brave one." Leo wanted to protest this but Darien barrelled on as if he had to get this all out now.

"And so the war began. It wasn't that bad at the start, mostly a few street brawls. But this continued for three years before it started to turn truly nasty. Cruella recruited more and more people and we were forced to bolster our own ranks. And then weapons came into play. Still no causalities, but Jadon and the other medics were overwhelmed with gashes and burn wounds. We were floundering and Cedric started pressuring me to allow our members to arm themselves. I was repulsed by the idea, most of our members were children not soldiers but Cedric kept trying to wear me down. Constant arguing ensued and that along with the pressure of trying to keep our members from getting killed caused me to end things with Cedric after another year. Things went worse then. He began drinking heavily and even though I stopped him from giving the kids knives, I apparently couldn't get him to stop arming himself. And then he was caught. I couldn't even visit him or they'd take me in for questioning and the entire gang would be screwed. And as he was nineteen, he was legally tried as and adult and sentenced to five years for possessing a knife." Darien's voice shattered at this point, and Aura took over the role of storyteller, though Leo was starting to regret wanting to hear this story.

"Darien didn't want to lead alone, he never had before and so I became his right hand girl. Things got worse though and injuries progressed from being annoying to being near fatal. But we to far into the feud by then to just try and call it off. A year later Jadon vanished. No note, no message, no trace left behind. If he left though, I can't blame him." Darien buried his face into his hands as Aura spoke.

"He had been taking care of everybody to the best of his abilities but he just couldn't cope anymore. The rift between him and the leaders never really closed, and when Cedric was imprisoned the chasm widened as Darien's temper became a lot shorter." She spoke matter of factly though her hand ran comfortingly through Darien's hair.

"And he never got over losing you." Blood suddenly dripped onto the floor as Leo's nails bit cruelly into his skin. All of this really was his fault. Then, Percy and Jason both bought a hand on Leo's shoulders and he gave them a small smile for their efforts.

"That was when we realised that we needed to take this completely serious. This wasn't a child's fight, this was a true gang war and we had to treat it as such. We had to train." Leo winced and Aura smiled sadly.

"And that's how we got to this point. You and your friends are welcome to come back and visit us for tomorrow but you should probably go to where ever you are staying and rest for now. And then you should go to where ever your home is now." Leo's mouth dropped open, but Darien silenced him with a look.

"You left the gang Leo, this isn't your fight." Darien emphasized the word "your" and Leo recoiled at the harsh reminder that Leo was no longer a part of the gang. He was no longer considered a member. He stood up shakily.

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow then." He mumbled before he turned and ran out of the door. He slowed when he got to the end of the corridor, he had to appear calm and collected in front of the gang members.

He strolled out and he heard his friends following him. Once they had caught up, they didn't speak even after they had left the building. Leo waved goodbye to Alec who was back at his post, carefully ignoring the glower from the fourteen year old sentry.

Not a word was spoken until they were sitting in the boy's bedroom.

"Dam." Percy uttered emphatically, and the others nodded.

"Are you okay Leo?" Annabeth's eyes raked over his face, and Leo found that he didn't have the energy to even attempt a facade.

"No. I'm not." He desperately fought back tears, but he found himself breaking down anyway. Numerous arms wrapped around him as he cried out all of his grief, horror and despair.

His childhood sanctuary had been shattered. Even after the way Leo a left the gang, he still considered it to be one of the best places that he had ever stayed and one of the best groups of people that he had ever encountered.

His tears eventually dried up and the other demigods withdrew slowly, yet Leo remained snuggled up to Jason for a few extra seconds as he tried to regain his composure. He didn't even have the will to be embarrassed by his presumably humiliating display. He sat back and Jason gave him a tentative, crooked grin to ask if he was alright, but Leo couldn't return the gesture.

And then a plan started forming in his mind, a plan that his friend's would never approve of but Leo knew it was a necessary plan.

He wiped away his tears but kept up his best bone tired mask.

"Guys, I'm going to get ready for bed and then I'm just going to go to sleep. I want this day over with." If any of them found this suspicious, hey didn't say so, and Leo trudged into the bathroom after grabbing his pyjamas. Underneath the thin cloth he bundled up a light dark Tee. He heard the girls shouting goodbye and he closed his eyes with a shaky grin. It was lucky that his pyjamas were red, he could hide his black top underneath them. His belt and pants would have to wait.

They didn't suspect a thing.

Leo crept down the hall. It was midnight, and Percy had been the last of the boys to fall asleep.

As soon as the son of Poseidon had fallen asleep, Leo had leapt out of bed and silently pulled his black cargo pants over his thin pyjama bottoms. He laced his tool belt around his waist silently and padded out of the door. He had made many and escape this way, he was an expert.

His footsteps made no sound on the wooden hall floor as he carried his boots with him. It wouldn't do to get out of the boy's room without incident only to wake up all of the girls.

He prayed that no one would have a nightmare, not only because he didn't like it when his friends suffered, but also because they would all wake up then and Leo would be far past screwed for the stunt he was about to pull. He had abandoned his pyjama top, condemning it to the confines of his tool belt by rolling it up and stuffing it tediously through one of the pockets as he made his way down from their fifth floor room to the ground floor. He had taken the stairs, needing the time to get prepared for what he was about to do.

He called forth the black zip up hoodie that he had left in his tool belt in case of emergency and, after a great deal of jostling, managed to pull it through one of the small pockets of his belt. It had been a genius idea to roll up clothes and stuff them in the belt, he was proud of himself for that.

Reaching the lobby, Leo used his limited knowledge of the mist to make sure that the man at the desk didn't see him.

Certain of his invisibility, Leo sauntered barefoot over to the couches to put his boots on. He tried to lace them up but his fingers were thrumming with nervous tension.

"Need some help there?" Leo squealed (not one of his proudest moments) as this voice that appeared perfectly pleasant held a menacing undertone. His eyes slowly moved from his boots to the face of an irate Hazel.

Heart pounding, Leo scrambled to think of an excuse, anything that would convince Hazel that he really needed to go outside without making it obvious what he was about to do.

That's why his heart almost stopped when Hazel bent down and tied his shoelaces for him as if he was a six year old child incapable of doing them himself.

Once both feet were secured in the black boots, Hazel stood up and offered him her hand.

"Come on." He took her hand, dumbly following her out of the hotel. He observed that Hazel was also dressed in black and everything seemed to fall into place.

"You aren't going to drag me back to the hotel room?" Leo exclaimed, and Hazel rolled her eyes at him.

"I may not be truly fantastic with directions when precious metal or tunnels aren't involved, but even I can't get that lost." Leo's breath escaped him in a relieved sigh.

"I knew that you would want to see your friend in jail and figure out what was going on here from his point of view. You're just less likely to get caught if I go with you." Leo came to a halt, which in turn caused Hazel to stop and gaze at him quizzically.

And then he was enveloping Hazel in the biggest hug he could manage. His friend squeaked a little in shock, but then she gratefully accepted the hug.

"Thank you." He muttered, and Hazel squeezed his hand in a show of companionship, just as she had before they had entered the gang's den.

"And I know that you are all mighty with directions now, but the jail is that way." Leo pointed to the correct direction and Hazel flushed, bopping him on the head before walking off in the right direction.

There was a silence between them, and although it was quite comfortable, Leo felt the need to explain himself further.

"Even if Cedric was pushing for the kids to arm themselves, he never would have gotten a knife without Darien's permission. Even if it looked like he was in charge, Darien had him wrapped around his little finger."

"Leo..." Leo carried on babbling nervously.

"And even if they broke up then I don't think that it would change that much. "

"Leo..."

"And I'm sure Jadon has a legitimate explanation for leaving, he wouldn't just abandon everybody like that."

"LEO!" Leo broke of panting as Hazel span to face him. They were a couple of streets away from the prison and Hazel placed her hands on Leo's shoulders bracingly.

"We'll find out what's going on. I promise." Leo smiled wetly and they walked the final length in contemplative silence.

Reaching the jail, Leo took a huge breath as he observed the building. The city that they were in was really small, and as such their jail was tiny. Hopefully it was also lacking on the security side as it housed a very small number of actual criminals.

He exchanged a brief glance with Hazel that spoke volumes. Hazel waved a hand, weaving the mist until it was bound around them tightly. They walked in. The officer on duty looked up when the door opened. His expression didn't even change when he noticed that no one was there to operate the door. He simply walked over and closed them, muttering "bloody wind" under his breath as he slammed them shut.

The invisible (to mortals) duo crept through the facility. They made a good team. Leo was no son of Hermes but he could crack locks like a master thief and Hazel used the mist to disguise any alarms going off. The guards expected a quiet night and so Hazel gave them one.

Stealthily, they reached Cedric's cell.

Hazel altered their mist disguise just before they reached his cell so that if any of the other prisoners (the whole three of them) did wake up, they wouldn't be able to hear any of their conversation or see them. If anyone looked at Cedric's cell they would simply see Cedric deep in slumber.

It was time to get some answers.

* * *

So I'll see you on the weekend for the third and final (I promise) part. I hope this makes up for me being late and I'll be updating this story just on weekends from now on.


	6. Chapter 6

And here is the final part of the Cedric/Darien/Aura/Jadon trilogy. All of your questions will hopefully be answered and I hope that you enjoy the final farewell to those four characters. Next weeks chapter will be on another character.

Logwet : I really love cliffhangers P:)

Melancholy's Sunshine : Maybe a little bit of both childish and badass Leo will come out. Oh, and I have something special planned for officer Cormac later on.

Creampuffs-and-fluff : Thank you, and I get so excited by all these lovely reviews that all of you reviewers are giving me.

Skyfir3S4kur4 : I'm sorry for hurting you, but I can't guarantee that there won't be anymore in the future ;)

ObsessedwReading : Thank you and don't worry, Leo will definitely reunite with both of them this chapter.

Alvin6299 : Thanks and it will all work out for Leo, though whether this will be in a good way or a bad way you'll have to read to find out.

Connwaer Heap : Oh, Leo will be getting his answers one way or another. And yes, it is quite sad that in the end Leo's actions were for naught. And thank you for the compliments, you all know how to make me blush.

Matt : He would be but unfortunately Nico isn't going to be in this one.

Hermes child awesomness : I'm glad that you like the characters, and I hope that this is a quick enough update for you.

Guest : Teehee that might just happen.

Gavroche Is Life Itself : :)

Sidda : I usually ship Ron and Harry because I love pretty much all Ron angst. And I'm a massive anime fan so I think that I understand. I think that I'd prefer Percy as Leo's sempai and then Leo as Nico's sempai. I think that Leo and Percy would both make awesome sempais.

Our Mismatched Socks : I'm glad that you liked it. And, no, Cedric didn't die. I think that you have him mixed up with Diggory who is a completely different character (I didn't realise how confusing having a character called Cedric and a character called Diggory would be until I had already done it),

Disclaimer : I think that you all understand by now that HOH is not mine.

* * *

Leo folded his arms and morphed his face into the sternest expression he could manage.

"Cedric." The older boy stirred, his head appearing from underneath his covers to peer blearily at the bars. Leo could pinpoint the exact moment that Cedric realised that it was him.

With a thump, the now twenty one year old man rolled out of bed and landed on the floor. He scrambled to the bars of the spell, hastily kicking the bed sheets behind him. His eyes locked onto Leo's and Leo shrank back from the dishevelled, defeated appearance of a person who he had once looked up to.

Cedric's eyes were bloodshot and a tiny scar was clear on his jaw. His hair was tousled and matted and although he was more muscular than the last time Leo had seen him, he also held the appearance of someone who had not eaten properly in a long while.

"Leo." His voice was raspy, not from disuse but from overwhelming emotion.

Tentatively, his fingers stretched beyond the bars of his cell to gently rest upon Leo's face.

"A knife Cedric. Seriously?" The hand that had been lightly resting against his cheek rested sharply at this, and Cedric's hollow eyes turned downwards in shame.

"It wasn't mine." These words were stifled by emotions, and Leo's hand clenched around one of the bars of the cell to stop himself falling over. He couldn't afford to be lenient right now, if Cedric was lying then he deserved to be behind bars no matter how much Leo might despise that situation.

"Then why did you have it?" Cedric's eyes met his again and Leo felt himself quaking at the sheer, desperate intensity within them.

"How are you even here? You left, they beat you up and you left. Why?" These words were choked, and Leo's compassionate side raised it's head. He reached between the bars and grabbed Cedric's hand. The older boy reciprocated.

"I wanted to see you guys again. I didn't expect this." Leo half heartedly gestured with his free hand, narrowly missing Hazel who was standing near him. Cedric's stare didn't deviate from Leo's face.

"Neither did I." A bitter smile tipped his mouth up. Leo snatched his hand back angrily.

"Then why were you trying to arm the gang?" Cedric drew his hands inwards and shuddered. He appeared to shrink before Leo's eyes and his heart ached at the sight of the once proud leader so broken and distraught.

"They were going to slaughter us. They outnumbered us and they didn't seem to care how badly they hurt us. I just wanted more defence, but Darien was adamant that we shouldn't stoop to their level. I wouldn't betray him like that, even if he broke up with me. The knife wasn't mine Leo." Leo believed him. His tone was adamant despite the darkness in his eyes.

"Then why didn't you tell them who's knife it was? You could have gotten out of this..." Leo was cut of by a broken laugh, a hollow chuckle that hurt him to hear. Cedric's pained gaze pierced through him.

"The knife was Jadon's." Leo's hands tightened against the bars as those words looped around his brain. Why would Jadon have a knife? None of the options that Leo could think of were good. Besides him, Hazel exhaled loudly in shock at this announcement, and her hand sought Leo's back in a form of comfort.

"We - Darien and I - had a massive falling out with both Jadon and Aura for not warning us about your idiotic plan to run away. Aura forgave us pretty easily once we had apologised, but Jadon seemed to be drifting away from us. He was colder, almost paranoid. We came to rely on him more and more as the stupid war deteriorated and his way of coping with the pressure seemed to be freezing us all out so that he could focus on what he was doing. I thought... I thought that we should leave him to it. If that as how he dealt with his mess, who was I to take away his coping mechanism?" Leo felt a coil of misery within his stomach. Jadon had suffered so much due to his absence and the entire gang had been affected by his stupidity.

"Eventually I decided that we had to confront him about his paranoia. He switched from icy calmness to hysterical panicking most days and it was hard to watch. So I went to his room. I found him inside, slipping a knife into the back of his pants. I... I'd been drinking a lot as the stress if the war took its toll and I lost my temper with him completely. I screamed at him for hours, I was so hypocritical. I just needed to vent my rage and Jadon was unfortunately in my way. He kept protesting, trying to tell me that the knife wasn't for any of the reasons that I was thinking of, but I had been worried about his hysteria for a while and this seemed like condemning evidence that the kid was going crazy." Leo's shoulders shook with the effort needed to stop himself from weeping like a kid at this news. What had happened to Jadon in his absence to make him sound so unhinged.

"I staggered away from the hideout, drunk out of my mind and fully intending to sink the knife in the closest body of water that I could find. I was too out of it at that point to realise how impractical my plan was. I was swaying as I walked and an police officer came over to see if I was alright. He saw the knife in my hand and arrested me on the spot. They gave me a night to sober up. They asked me about the knife, and I just couldn't give Jadon up. I kept getting flashbacks to when he was an innocent little twelve year old who worshipped the very ground you walked on." Leo leant his head against the bars.

This was all just too much. Cedric was in jail because he had taken a knife of Jadon who had turned into a paranoid mess. The gang were at war with Cruella. Everything had gone to Hades. And Leo had to find a way to fix it. After all, this was his fault, he was obliged to find a solution. The fact that his gang family was in turmoil was another factor in his need to find a solution. Leo decided not to tell Cedric that Jadon had gone missing just yet. The boy had enough to worry about.

He leant forwards, stretching his arms as far as he could in an attempt to loop them around Cedric's neck. The older boy seemed to catch on to what Leo was attempting as he shuffled his haggard form closer, slotting his arms through the bars either sides of the ones that Leo was sticking his arms through and fastening them around Leo's waist.

It wasn't exactly the most comfortable hug ever, but it was so charged with emotion that Leo remained within it for longer than he had intended.

As he drew back, he wished that he could break his friend out. He also knew that Cedric would never accept that. No matter what his flaws were, no one could claim that Cedric wasn't honourable, and although his imprisonment was wrongful, he would see it as punishment for his reliance on alcohol and his self perceived failing the gang.

"I'll see you again soon Cedric. Hopefully by then everything will be sorted out." Cedric smiled wistfully as Leo turned to go.

"It was good to see you again." He muttered. Leo sent him a final smile.

"You to."

As he left the prison with Hazel, they carefully undid any damage that they had inadvertently or purposefully caused to the security of the building.

They exited silently and after they had gotten far enough away Hazel dispelled her mist cover.

"So it looks like Jadon is at the root of this problem." Hazel's voice was quiet, but her words struck Leo like a blow.

"He must have a reason, he must!" Hazel nodded at him mournfully and they headed back to the hotel in a silence that was a lot more strained than before.

As they approached the hotel, a figure in a stained and torn hoodie became visible, slumped against the wall of the building.

The demigods approached cautiously, in this area they had gangs to worry about as well as monsters and they weren't taking any chances.

"Are you okay?" Leo's voice was suitably concerned and the figure's head snapped up at the sound of it.

This action caused the hood to fall back, revealing a very familiar face.

"Jadon!" Leo stared at the pitiful figure on the ground and his heart wrenched. He wanted to be annoyed at his childhood friend, Cedric was in jail due to him after all, but Jadon seemed terrified, his pupils blown wide with fear and his body trembling slightly.

"Leo! You really did turn up..." Leo was baffled by this statement.

"What do you mean?" Jadon stood shakily and pulled Leo into a tight hug.

"I had a dream that you would be here. That you would help me." It was at this moment that the other demigods poured out of the hotel, ready to curse and shout at him and Hazel.

Everyone halted at the sight of Jadon who was currently squeezing the life out of Leo.

For one awkward moment, everybody just stood and stared at each other (Leo swore that he could hear crickets in the distance). And then something clicked.

"Wait, you said that you had a dream?" Jadon released him and nodded, snivelling a little bit.

"I think that we should go inside and talk." That was Percy and he didn't sound impressed.

Leo nodded so Percy wouldn't murder him there and then. He then grabbed Jadon's arm.

"You need to come with us." Jadon agreed and they all filed in.

Once again everyone gathered in the boy's room, though this time they had the addition of Jadon.

"Well I've heard Darien and Aura's side of the story, and I've just came back from finding out Cedric's side of the story, so I guess it's time for you to tell me our side." Leo knew that his friends wanted to know what he and Hazel had just been up to, especially after the mention of Cedric, but Leo homed in on Jadon.

Because Leo was formulating a theory and only Jadon's tale could confirm or negate it.

"Cruella's a bloody monster!" The older teen exclaimed. Leo raised an eyebrow and wondered whether or not he should be hoping that this was the case.

"Leo, you fight monsters, don't you?" Leo stared at Jadon blankly, waiting for Jadon to elaborate. It looked like Leo's theory was only just beginning to dawn on the rest of the demigods.

With a shaky breath, Jadon reached underneath his shirt and pulled out Leo's old ring.

Jadon ran a hand through his shock of blonde hair before presenting the ring to Leo.

Leo took it reverently, slipping the band onto his skinny finger. It was still too big on him, but it wasn't as big as it had been when he was ten.

"Thank you." He mumbled, and Jadon gave him a proper smile, minus all of the negative emotions that he had been previously displaying. He then began to speak, addressing all of the demigods, but mostly directing his speech to Leo.

"If you've talked to the others then I assume you know about the gang war?" Leo inclined his head to indicate that he had while running his finger over the band. He had Harley's ring on the opposite hand and Leo felt secure with symbols of both his past and present adorning his fingers.

"I mostly stayed off of the front line as I'm more of a healer than a fighter." Alarm bells began ringing in Leo's head.

"But occasionally I would be drawn into a fight and I began noticing things about some of the gang members we were fighting. No one else saw what I saw and I thought that I was going insane. This went on from after the year you left and I thought that maybe losing you had tipped me over the edge, especially when Darien and Cedric turned against me."

What did you see?" Annabeth's voice held a note of urgency as she asked this question.

"Some of the girls we were fighting,, well, they had one donkey leg and one prosthetic leg and their hair was made of fire. Everyone except me just saw a bunch of pretty girls, and for some reason they would always target me." Leo's fists clenched as the rest of the seven gasped. The only logical explanation that could be derived from this was that Jadon was a demigod. And Leo had a pretty good idea of who his godly parent was. Blonde hair, good at healing and Leo had heard him sing once and the teen was incredible. Jadon was a son of Apollo.

It was at this moment that the light in the room intensified. A mini sun had appeared over Jadon's head and as it bobbed around a mini golden arrow pierced it.

Jadon looked horrified.

"What's going on!" He spluttered, and Annabeth stood up.

"Hail Jadon, son of Apollo." She said in Chiron's stead before she explained claiming. Said boy stared up at her in confusion as Percy grouched on about how Jadon was eighteen and that he should have been claimed ages ago.

"Jadon, it's hard to believe, but the Greek Gods are real, as are their Roman forms. Everyone here is a child of the Gods." Jadon gaped at him, jaw occasionally moving as if he was about to speak but couldn't find the words.

"Monsters are also real, the descriptions that you just gave us suggest that those girls are really empousai." Jadon just looked dumbfounded.

"Is that why you got a knife?" Jadon turned to Percy, who was the one to ask this, with an incredulous look.

"They had freaking flames for hair. What the hell was a punch going to do against that?" Percy looked sheepish at this.

They gave the distraught boy a few minutes to absorb this information, but Jadon's expression was becoming more and more curious.

"So what Gods are you all children of?" They all answered this quickly, naming the God or Goddess, whether they were Greek or Roman and also what they were God or Goddess of.

Leo was last to speak, and Jadon's amazement as he stared at him was kind of embarrassing. He couldn't help but wonder if the older boy had gotten over his crush on him yet.

"So do any of you have, umm, powers?" Jadon's question was hesitant, but all the demigods answered him calmly, some with small demonstrations. For his demonstration, Leo made a small ball of fire hover over his palm. Nothing too flashy, but Jadon still seemed awed by it.

"So do you have any powers?" Jason sat back against his headboard as he scrutinised Jadon.

"I... I can heal people in a way and I have really good aim if that counts for anything." They all nodded and Piper informed him that these were typical Apollo traits.

And then another startling truth slammed into Leo's mind.

"Wait, so Cruella is an empousa? And if so, why didn't she kill me when she had the chance?" Jadon looked stricken, both because he was probably imagining tiny ten year old Leo getting murdered by an empousa but also because Leo had given her an opportunity to do so.

"Didn't Gaia say that the Fates wouldn't allow her to kill you? Maybe Cruella was bound by the same thing." Annabeth's reasoning made sense, and Leo was content to leave it at that. He wasn't about to question a decision that had kept him alive.

Everybody seemed to be digesting the news that Leo had been saved from getting killed by a monster at the age of ten purely because of the Fates intervention. It wasn't a pleasant thought. And the next thought that Leo had wasn't much better.

"If Cruella's gang is mostly made up of monsters then we're going to have to take them out, aren't we." The other members of the seven nodded and Jadon looked morose.

"What about the human members?" Leo hadn't considered that problem. That's why he was lucky to be part of a team.

"Empousai can use charmspeak so the human members are probably being forced to do her bidding. After we defeat the monsters then the effect should wear off."

Leo was all for charging out right now and taking down the monster gang, but the others shot that idea down. They made some compelling arguments about how everybody needed some sleep and that Leo had promised to visit the gang again tomorrow. It was already early hours of the morning, and although Leo was fine with no/minimal levels of sleep, the others (especially Jadon) all looked like they could use some.

Jadon was arranging to meet them tomorrow after they visited the gang when Leo began to wonder where exactly Jadon was staying. After all, the gang hadn't managed to find him.

"Jadon, where have you been staying anyway?" The older boy flushed and shifted uncomfortably. Leo knew that that meant Jadon had been on the streets, and he wasn't going to let his friend go back to them now.

"You can stay with us if you want." He knew that his friends wouldn't mind. Jadon seemed to dither over this, and Leo decided that it was time for his secret weapon.

He leant forwards and put on his best puppy dog eyes.

"I'd really appreciate it if you stayed Jadon. I missed you." Jadon was helpless in front of the power of Leo's cutest puppy dog eyes and soon the girls were all leaving as Leo got ready for bed. When he was ready he walked over to Jadon.

"You can share my bed if you want." Jadon looked stricken by this.

"Even though I'm gay?" He muttered, and Leo rolled his eyes before tugging him over to the bed.

"I don't care that you're gay, you're still my friend. Now come on, the quicker we go to sleep the quicker we rid the streets of monsters." They climbed into bed, and Leo noticed with a slight twinge of amusement that Jadon was trying to keep as far away from him as physically possible.

Leo shifted so that he was facing Jadon and curled up so that his head was buried into Jadon's chest.

"Relax Jadon." He muttered, and he felt as Jadon's muscles gradually loosened as he drifted off.

Leo woke up to a camera flash. He wiped his eyes blearily and realised that he was draped over a blushing Jadon, and that Piper was standing at the foot of the bed taking pictures.

"Piper, I will murder you if your cabin get a hold of those." His friend giggled and sauntered out of the room, calling over her shoulder that they needed to get ready as the rest of the demigods were waiting for them downstairs in the dining room.

Leo yawned and stretched and then began flipping through his bag for a new set of clothes. He spotted a pile of clothes on Percy's bed with a note lying on top and shuffled over to see what it said.

He read the note and then thrust the clothes towards Jadon.

"Percy said that you looked to be a similar size so he'll lend you some clothes for now. We'll go and fetch your stuff after we meet with the gang again." Leo suddenly found himself in an incredibly tight hug from behind.

"Woah, I know that your grateful and all, but I don't want to be stealing Percy's hug." Leo joked, trying to discern what exactly had shifted in the atmosphere.

"I really missed you Leo. And everything just went downhill after you left. The leaders were so angry at me and Aura. Then we found out that you handed yourself over to Cruella for a beating and the gang went to war. It was so scary watching the relationship between Cedric and Darien get worse and worse while the fighting escalated. And then I found out that I had these freaky powers and that more and more opposite gang members were beginning to look like monsters. I had to run because the fighting got worse whenever I was around."

"Monsters target demigods more than normal humans. What I don't get is why Cruella went to war with a bunch of mortals anyway." He could feel Jadon shrug as the taller boy's head nestled into the crook between his neck and shoulder.

"You know that the knife was mine, that Cedric took it off me and then go arrested. I wanted to confess so badly. But I knew that they would probably keep Cedric in custody anyway as a runaway child, and then no one would be able to heal the worst of the gang's injures. But the pressure and the guilt got to me, I couldn't stay." Leo sighed.

"You know Darien thinks that he drove you away and Cedric feels guilty for not noticing what was wrong sooner." Jadon pulled back from the hug and turned Leo around so that the fiery demigod was staring into his wild eyes.

"Why would they do that, I was the one who messed up?"

"Well, Darien doesn't know that the knife was yours." Jadon cringed at this.

"And they both think that they could have done more to comfort you when I left." Jadon shook his head.

"They shouldn't blame themselves for me being an idiot."

"Well they do. And do you know why?" Jadon shook his head.

"Because we are a family. Even if we both left we are still a part of the gang." Jadon's eyes welled up at this, and Leo sent him a soft smile.

"We'll clear all this mess up after we do away with the monsters. But first we need to get ready as I don't want them to eat all of the good food before I get there."

Piper had used her status (after claiming that Leo owed her for making her pull this stunt) to get Jadon breakfast as well despite the fact that he hadn't been legally booked into the hotel. She had also paid to get an extra bed put in the boy's room.

Jadon had retreated back there with Leo's DS to entertain him while the others had ventured back to the gang headquarters.

The second visit went pretty much the same way as the first, Aura and Darien filling them in on some more important details of the gang war while Leo was occasionally accosted by members who recognised him.

However, this time when they left they had a definite plan of how to help the gang. Piper had subtly coaxed information about where Cruella and her cronies (Leo noted that that would make a great band name, Cruella and the cronies) could possibly be holed up.

Using their demigod wisdom and knowledge of battle, they had narrowed down her possible location to the four most likely destinations.

As they stood in the elevator on the way up to their floor they divvied out the locations and came across one fatal flaw of their plan.

The seven of them couldn't equally cover all four locations on their own at the exact same time. One person would be forced to cover the final location on their own, and that plan wasn't acceptable to any of them.

The only solution was to ask Jadon to team up with them. An untrained demigod who had only just found out what he was.

They entered the boys room (their now designated meeting space) and smiled at Jadon who instantly turned off Leo's DS and flung it to the side, portraying just how nervous he had been whilst they were gone.

Annabeth filled him in on their plan to take out the monsters.

"I'll help out. I need to help out." Jadon's voice was steady, firm, and Leo was proud of his old friend. He was going to make a great demigod. Leo made a mental note to talk to Jadon about camp later, they had enough to deal with right now.

"Well it looks like I have my partner then." Leo smiled and rooted in his belt for one of the daggers that he stored in there. A bow would be better for a son of Apollo but Leo knew that Frank hadn't brought his spare so a dagger would just have to do.

They had decided to head out in the evening, around six, so they had some time to give Jadon some brief lessons in monster fighting and dagger wielding.

He was pretty good, and Leo felt safe knowing that his friend would have his back.

They had a meal in the dining room at five, and then they were gearing up.

After a round of goodbyes and good lucks, the demigods scattered and headed off to their allocated location.

Leo had cheated though. He had picked the location that he knew was closest to the area where Cruella had resided whilst Leo was in the gang. And he knew she'd be there.

Fate had a strange sense of humour, and the fact that a rival gang from Leo's childhood was literally ran by a monster was typical douche move by fate. At least it had led to his reconciliation with his old friends though.

Silence was their third companion, and Leo could tell it was due to Jadon's nerves. During their training earlier they had explained that only certain types of metal worked on monsters which was why Jadon's knife probably wouldn't work. This had most likely added to his friend's guilt as Cedric had been arrested for possessing Jadon's knife, a knife that wouldn't have done him any good.

Leo had tried to alleviate some of the other boy's guilt, but his words hadn't had as much of an impact as he had hoped.

And now wasn't the time to help get rid of Jadon's emotional problems as their destination came into view.

Leo gestured to the side of the building where the windows were mostly all broken or cracked. They crept towards them and after seeing no sign of anyone, they shimmied through. Jadon had a lot more difficulty with this than Leo, being both taller and bulkier than the Latino, and Leo had to tug him through.

Once both boys had successfully traversed the window, Leo pulled his trademark hammers out his belt and advanced carefully.

"Well, well, well. Two demigods wander into our lair. I didn't get to kill you last time Leo Valdez. I will greatly enjoy the pleasure this time. Monsters slunk out of the shadows, their ranks occasionally punctuated by human thralls.

Her face was less pretty with glowing red eyes, pasty white skin and framed by flames. Her prosthetic leg also made odd clanking noises as she walked, clashing with the sounds made by her hoof.

"I'd say that you got prettier with age, but I don't feel like lying." The gang leader/monster gnashed her teeth together.

"And I'd say that you had gotten funnier but I to don't feel like lying." Leo turned to Jadon with fake amazement.

"Dam Jadon, I'd say that I just got burnt but that's an impossible feat even for that flame head over there. I mean, geez, I've heard of red heads having fiery tempers but she's taking this a bit too far." Cruella's demonic eyes lazily flicked over Jadon.

"I'm going to enjoy killing both of you." She raised one elegant hand and some of her lackeys charged at the demigods.

It was a rough fight, but Leo was taking out quite a few of the minions and Jadon had also managed to send a few to their dusty doom. That was when things went pear shaped.

"Everyone stop!" Cruella's voice was so beautiful that Leo instantly lowered his weapons. He wouldn't want to disobey this beautiful woman now would he? With sinking dread, Leo realised that Cruella had remembered her charmspeak.

"Now demigods, come to me." They both walked forwards obediently, Leo's teeth gritted as he fought the effects and Jadon's eyes fearful as he was easily controlled.

"I was going to let my sisters tear you apart, but I just thought of a much more interesting ending to your lives." She stalked forwards, cupping their chins in a mock-loving manner.

"Don't you want to fight for me boys?" Leo felt frustration and anger rise through him. Yes he did want to fight Jadon. He was angry at Jadon. The older boy had waited until Leo was leaving to confess his crush, making it harder on Leo to go. He had broke his arm once due to petty jealousy. He had gotten Cedric thrown in prison.

One part of Leo was screaming that this was wrong, that he had forgiven Jadon for all of this, but the part that was influenced by Cruella's voice was stronger.

His fists clenched.

"Drop your weapons boys." The empousa ordered, and two of her minions scurried forwards to drag the weapons away.

"Now fight." Leo felt his fire consume his brain, making him lunge forwards and land a solid punch in Jadon's stomach. Jadon's eyes were also angry, and as they boys wrestled on the floor, Leo realised that Jadon had plenty of reasons to be angry at Leo.

Leo had shown him up, hadn't returned his feelings and had left him.

Leo got the upper hand and started landing brutal punches. He wanted to stop, he didn't want to hurt his friend.

"STOP!" Piper's voice radiated power, and Leo was relieved as his body obeyed her command, stilling and no longer pummelling Jadon.

His chest heaved, they had really gone for each other and both boys were battered, though Jadon was admittedly worse.

Now freed from Cruella's influence, Leo rose shakily, hauling Jadon up with him. The older boy leant in.

"I forgive you." Leo understood that these words weren't just for the fight, they were for everything that had happened in the past.

"Me too."

Piper and Jason entered the building angrily. They nodded to their fellow demigods. Leo drew two more daggers from his belt, tossing one to Jadon. They weren't his favourite weapons but the dagger would serve its purpose.

The monsters' attention was completely on Piper, the dangerous girl who could rival the charmspeak of the empousai. This meant that they weren't watching Leo. He slid forwards slowly, drawing closer and closer to the lolita clad monster. And then his dagger was in her back. As she crumbled, her "sisters" shrieked and lunged forwards. The room was filled with action as the four demigods worked in tandem, Godly weapons against monster's claws.

And then it was over and the room was filled with dust and heavy breathing. The thralls looked bemused.

That was when the other demigods burst in.

"Hey guys, you missed the party." Leo flashed them a cheeky grin, as they raced over to inspect everybody's wounds.

He turned his inquisitive gaze upon the duo who had joined him and Jadon in the fight. Piper shot him a dark glare.

"I realised that you had seemed a little to eager to get this location and that this was probably the location that you thought most likely to house the monsters." Leo smiled guiltily as the others confessed to having similar lines of thought, that's how they all got their so soon.

He then grinned deviously.

"So how did it feel to be part of a gang fight?" Jason glared at him and Piper rolled her eyes.

Piper then used her charmspeak to convince the thralls that the gang had disbanded after a massive fight with their group caused the leader and her most trusted members to flee. She then convinced them that they would never harm any members of Leo's old gang again.

After that was sorted, Piper sent them on their way.

Jadon meekly crept forwards.

"Do you want me to heal some of that?" He offered, and Leo shook his head.

"No, we're going to need to convince the gang that we fought hard enough to scare Cruella and her main followers into leaving. For that we could probably use some battle wounds." Jadon agreed to this logic and they headed back to the hotel. On the way back from the warehouse, Leo told Jadon all about camp and the older boy agreed to come back with them. The next day they would all be confronting Darien and Aura and explaining as much of the story as they could to them.

But first they needed to spring someone from jail.

Strangely enough, the man in charge of the jail didn't need too much convincing to release Cedric early on good behaviour, and he objected even less to releasing him instantly. Piper's charmspeak was really being used to its full potential on this trip.

They had given Cedric a little while to get used to being released, especially through such weird circumstances. They had also given him a chance to talk with Jadon. They had all worked out a cover story for why Jadon had had the knife, he was going to say that he had suspected that one Cruella's gang members had had a personal grudge against him and that this vendetta had scared him enough to get a knife to feel a little safer. He hadn't been planning to use it, he just wanted it to threaten the other boy if he made a move against him.

Cedric had swallowed up the whole story and him and Jadon were back to being close.

He also believed their tale of how they had fought the other gang and how Cruella had fled. He had expressed his deepest thanks, but Leo had brushed it off by saying that family needed no thanks.

It was now time to deliver Cedric back to the gang, and for Leo and Jadon to say their final goodbyes. Sure, they were going to try and stay in contact, but when they left they'd be leaving for good.

Alec was on guard duty again as they approached (Leo had a feeling that however the gang allocated chores was rigged). His expression when he saw how beat up some of the demigods were, coupled with the appearance of Jadon and Cedric was hilarious.

He had instantly ran up and attempted to hug Leo, Jadon and Cedric all at once. He had then bounded off to alert Darien and Aura to their appearance. He called over his shoulder to say that they should make their way to the same room as last time.

Leo was about to walk through when Jason tugged him back.

"We're going to stay here. This should be between all of you." Leo smiled gratefully as his friends before leading Cedric and Jadon in.

Many gang members cheered when they caught sight of Jadon and Cedric who waved bashfully (Jadon) or smiled broadly (Cedric).

When Darien and Aura entered, time was a whirlwind of hugs and stories. Everything was cleared up.

When they learned about Jadon being the one to possess the knife, they were a little disappointed in him, but the joy of having them all together again overwhelmed even those negative feelings.

Once every story had been told, Darien stood up and strode purposefully towards Cedric who tensed up, obviously expecting to be hit.

They were all taken by surprise when Darien instead kissed him full force. Cedric reciprocated instantly and Leo pulled a face at Aura who giggled.

The oldest people in the room pulled apart, and Cedric growled playfully at the look on Leo's face.

"Got a problem runt?" Leo shook his head and beamed, The atmosphere in the room was filled with joy and Leo basked in it.

"So are you two here to stay?" Aura asked, eyes flitting between Cedric and Jadon. Jadon froze.

"Actually guys, I'm going with Leo." Aura's face fell and the leaders frowned.

"Jadon, you know that we'd be happy to have you back don't you?"

"Yes, and I'm grateful for that, but after all that has happened, I just don't belong here any more. I know that you would let me stay here, but my place is no longer with the gang. I'm sorry" The gang trio stared at them sadly, though their eyes also held understanding.

"Then we wish you both good luck."

"You to." They left after that, escorted by the leaders and Aura. As they left, members flooded the corridors to say goodbye to the demigods.

It was a humbling thing, to have all of these people flock to you just to say goodbye. It was a sombre occasion, buy also joyous. They were all safe and the lost had been relocated.

When they reached the doors, they both were hugged by the trio.

They swore to stay in touch, and the they were leaving the gang behind for good.

Once they were a suitable distance away from the gang, Jadon placed a hand lightly on Leo's face and healed as much of him as he could with his powers.

"Come on Jadon, it's time to get your stuff. You're gonna love Camp Half Blood.

* * *

And there we have it, the end of the gang trilogy. Next time we'll be moving on to a different character. I hope that you enjoyed the gang reunion, I really enjoyed writing it. See you all next time.


	7. Chapter 7

And here I am with the next instalment of Reunions. After looking at the responses that I got for the last three chapters, I was wondering how many of you want another Jadon chapter, with Jadon back at camp? If a lot of people want another Jadon piece then I'll write one. I have also played around with the Comic Con dates. Please excuse this as all Comic Con info is based on London Comic Con. Thank you for all of the faves/follows.

Epicawesomen00b : :)

Connwaer Heap : Thank you, I'm glad that my plot twists worked.

Skyfir3S4kur4 : Thank you, and I'm happy to hear that you liked Cruella being an empousa.

Sidda : Thanks, and being a nerd is great ;) My question for you is what are your top three book series? Mine are HOO, Harry Potter and The Mortal instruments.

LeDo : Because I enjoy torturing my reviewers :)

DaughterOfPegasus : Here you go.

B.E by Erin : If enough people want me to do another Jadon chapter then I'll have a chapter that involves Jadon's P.O.V.

Melancholy's Sunshine : I can totally see something like that happening! Or Leo spending way too long on an invention and Jadon drags him away to get some sleep. "I don't care how close you are to finishing, you haven't slept in three days!" "But Jadonnnnn." "No, don't think that you can wheedle your way out of this!"

Zoethezany III : Thanks for all of your reviews, and that was probably the biggest hint towards Jadon's true identity.

Disclaimer : I don't own HOO or Comic Con or any of the Cosplay. If anyone can sell me things then I'll be greatly indebted.

* * *

"Piper, you are the best friend in the entire universe and I will be forever in your debt!" Leo blurted out whilst bouncing up and down in his seat, almost dislodging Annabeth's wig in his excitement. Piper blushed.

"It's fine Leo. It was easy enough for me to get the tickets and the outfits so don't worry about it. If you really want to repay me then don't make any jokes if we see a Tristan McLean costume." Leo beamed and nodded. He so owed Piper for this.

To celebrate Leo's return to the land of the living, Piper had bought the Seven (and Nico, who was seen as a part of their crew despite his protests) tickets to San Diego Comic Con. She had also offered to pay for any costumes that the others wanted to buy.

Everyone was excited, even the people (*cough* Hazel and Nico *cough*) who weren't usually into this sort of thing.

After all, Comic Con wasn't just about comics.

They had all scoured the internet and nearby shops for costumes and Piper had generously paid for all of them.

If Leo had known that he'd be get a trip to Comic Con as well as a free costume just for dying then he'd have visited Elysium more often.

The demigods were currently in full costume, driving the building where Comic Con was being held. And what an odd bunch they looked.

Nico was wearing Hades outfit from the Mythomagic card series, modern outfit expansion pack mode. The game was actually what plied Nico to come in the first place. Leo had just so happened to mention that people happened to gather at the Con to trade cards or to play the games of popular series, and Mythomagic was weirdly enough one of the favourites. The day after, Nico had shuffled up to the seven and muttered that he'd be coming, but only because Piper had bought the tickets in advance and he didn't want her to waste her money.

Leo had then helped his technologically impaired friend trawl the internet for the perfect costume. It was actually pretty easy to find, Hades seemed to be a popular card, go figure.

As the costume was based of more modern clothing due to it being a part of an expansion pack, it didn't look too old fashioned. It looked awesome if Leo was honest. It consisted of a tight black T-shirt with an image of crossed scythes coming out of a bleeding skull's eye sockets, black skinny jeans with a chunky spiked belt looped through, knee high boots with skull motifs at the bottom and a long, black leather coat that reached Nico's knees. The belt was connected to a fob watch that rested in Nico's pocket by a chain shaped to look like a skeleton arm.

The overall effect was wicked, even Nico had been pleased, and Leo could have sworn that Will taken a bazillion photos.

Percy's costume, along with Jason's, had been easy to guess, and Leo would have been personally offended if they hadn't chosen to go as Aqua Man and Superman respectively. In fact, he had badgered them about it for so long that both had been obliged to go as the heroes. They also both went old fashioned, so Jason had a lovely pair of red underwear over his blue tights.

Hazel's options were pretty limited as she hadn't really experienced everything this century had to offer, but she eventually settled on being Wendy from Peter Pan, dressed in an old fashioned nightgown. She had been very happy with her choice, she loved old tales like Peter Pan and so Wendy seemed like a pretty good fit. One of the first things that she had demanded to watch at movie night was Disney's Peter Pan as she had loved the book so much.

Frank had gone a surprising root, revealing to Leo that he was an anime fan. Leo had watched quite a few animes and although it was weird for him to find things in common with Frank, they had bonded somewhat over some of the classics like Bleach and Naruto. In honour of this, Frank had chosen to dress as Ishida the Quincy archer from Bleach in his first costume. This consisted of a long white (almost dress like) tunic that reached Frank's knees with slits on each side up to his waist. The zip was outlined in blue. Underneath this was simple white dress shoes and pants. A short cape covered the top of his torso, ending at his elbows. A silver cross with a smaller blue cross design in the centre glinted near his wrist, dangling from a short chain.

It was a snappy outfit, and if Frank needed to use a bow, Leo had constructed a perfect, working replica of the bow from the anime. It glowed and everything. The monsters wouldn't know what hit them, a trident with real working water powers, Jason flying in with his underwear over his pants or a glowing arrow from an equally blinding bow.

Piper had chosen to go as Jasmine from Aladdin, stating that she was her favourite Disney princess growing up. She looked stunning, and Leo knew that Jason had showered her in compliments from the red tint in her cheeks.

Annabeth was Hermione Granger from Harry Potter. Some how Leo wasn't at all confused by this choice. It just... worked. She was wearing typical wizard robes and had a fake wand (made by Leo like Percy's trident and Frank's bow). The wig that Leo had almost displaced was a frizzy brown as Hermione preferred to cosplay as Hermione in the earlier books.

Leo himself had received the special privilege of purchasing two costumes. The one that he was going to be wearing the next day (the more awesome outfit that he wanted to save for the busiest day of the con) was Ezio's first outfit from Assassin's Creed. He adored that outfit, and he was so ready to get into character that he had asked Nico to teach him a few basic Italian phrases. Luckily a lot of Italian is similar to Spanish so Leo had no problem picking up a few idioms.

Leo's other costume (the one he was wearing right now) was that of a Charmander from Pokemon. As Charmander is a fire type, Leo found it oddly appropriate to cosplay. He tried to ignore the fact that the girls had been calling him "adorable" and "cute" ever since they had left the hotel. He wasn't going to let their weirdness but a damper on this.

Finally, they reached the Comic Con building. Leo was practically vibrating with excitement. He was going to buy so many souvenirs.

To make navigating the con easier, they had all chosen to split into duos so that they wouldn't have to constantly keep an eye on each other. For the first day, the Disney girls (Piper and Hazel) were together, the Mythomagic freaks (Nico and Frank) were paired up, Percy and Annabeth had elected to stay together, and therefore Leo was going to be perusing the Con's wares with Jason.

They queued up for hours, but Leo's ADHD was distracted by playing spot the cosplay. He recognised a lot of the costumes which made him happy.

Eventually they had their wristbands (that they had to keep on for the entirety of their stay) and a designated meeting time/place and were ready to venture forth into this brave new world.

For the first few hours, Leo literally dragged Jason around as he oohed and aahed at all of the amazing things on sale. Jason never complained, which told Leo a lot. Obviously his friend had really missed him if he was willing to allow Leo to tug him all around the large con.

And then Leo found the DDR machine. A boy dressed in Skyrim hunting gear was currently beating the tar out of someone who was dressed as Naruto. The Skyrim cosplayer's horned helmet wobbled ominously as he played. Once Naruto had lost, Leo stepped forwards. The game started and both boys went all out.

But in the end, Leo was victorious. He turned to shake the hand of his opponent, but the other boy's eyes just locked onto his face.

The sparkling blue eyes observed him for a solid minute before someone politely asked them to move away if they weren't going to actually play the game.

The other boy nodded and stumbled off of the game's dance mat. Leo walked back over to Jason, and the Skyrim cosplayer followed him.

"Can I help you with something?" Leo was seriously confused as to why this boy seemed so shocked to see him. And then the boy removed his helmet, revealing ice blonde hair.

"Jazz!" Leo exclaimed as his old friend smiled at him shakily.

"It's good to see you again, Leo." Leo nodded , and they stood awkwardly for a few seconds before Leo broke his stoic facade and lunged forwards to envelop Jazz in a bear hug.

His friend hugged him back, equally as hard. Then Jason coughed in a not so subtle manner.

Leo pulled back from the hug.

"Jazz, this is Jason. Jason, Jazz." Jason shook Jason's hand warmly, and they decided to find some place to sit down and talk, a feat easier said than done.

They trawled around for a good ten minutes. Luckily, they managed to find a patch of floor off to the side where they would have about as much peace as an event like this would grant them.

They caught each other up, though Leo was careful to leave out all mentions of any demigod activity. They also carefully skirted around the nature of Leo's departure from Jazz's neighbourhood, a fact that Leo was very grateful for. Jason knew enough of his memories, he didn't need to know anymore.

Once they had gotten all of the catching up out of the way, they settled on the much more comfortable topic of gaming and the con in general.

Jazz was a really easy going person, which meant that he easily included Jason in the conversation. Leo was really thankful for that, as awesome as it was to see Jazz again, this trip was mostly for the demigods to get over Leo's death and he wanted Jason to enjoy the time spent with him.

The other boys seemed to be getting along great though, so Leo had no reason to be worried. In fact, Jason was the one to suggest that Jazz should spend the rest of the day with them, saying that the other blonde could meet the rest of their friends. Jazz agreed warmly, and Leo found a sudden question dawning on him.

"So why were you at the DDR section alone?" Jazz blanched.

"My dad went the toilet while I played! He's going to freak!" Jazz whipped out his phone and realised that he had accidentally switched it to silent. Leo overheard him mutter a silent prayer to God (which made Leo grin) as he turned the sound back on, blushing as his Pokemon theme ring tone went off. Jazz clearly noticed his smirk as he hissed "I'm not the one dressed as charmander", before answering the phone.

A loud voice instantly blared out of the phone, and Jazz held it away form his ear, grimacing.

After a lot of scolding/berating, Jazz's dad quietened down enough for Jazz to speak.

"Dad, Leo's here." The voice on the other end of the line cut off immediately.

"Where are you?" It inquired in a much more subdued tone than before. Jazz reeled off directions to where they were sitting before turning to the other boys with a sheepish smile.

"I kinda forgot about my dad." Leo laughed, he just couldn't help it. Jason was sniggering beside him, and eventually Jazz was snickering as well.

"Great way of getting out of a punishment there, tell someone that your old friend has suddenly appeared in Comic con." Leo laughed even harder as Jazz attempted to glare at him but failed because he was laughing way too hard.

And then Jazz's dad burst out of the stalls and skidded over to them.

He was basically an older version of Jazz, but his hair had more of a golden tint than Jazz's pale locks.

The man panted, clearly he had ran around looking for his son.

Despite himself, Leo felt a sharp spike of envy cutting into him.

He had died fighting his father's war, and yet the man couldn't even be bothered to pop in occasionally for a chat. Leo quickly stowed those emotions away, feeling like that would only cause him more grief in the end.

He plastered on a huge smile, and found himself in a bone crushing hug.

"It's good to see you again, kid." Leo hugged him back, remembering the times in his past when Jazz's dad had hugged him.

Once when Leo had gotten sick during a sleepover, another time when Leo's foster parents had forgotten to come and pick him up, and many other times when Leo had needed it. This man had been more of a father to him than Hephaestus had ever been, and yet Hephaestus was his biological father.

The man withdrew his arms slowly, and sent a look to Jazz that clearly stated that there would be hell to pay once the day was over.

"Will you boys excuse me and my son for a second?" Leo and Jason nodded and Mr Harris tugged his son away, having a whispered conversation that involved lots of hand waving. Leo waited with Jason, idly fiddling with one of his purchases.

Then Jazz bounded over to them.

"My dad said that as long as I meet him at the end of the day, I can go round with you." His eyes were shining, but Leo felt guilty. Clearly Mr Harris had brought his son here to enjoy some bonding time, and here was Leo inconveniently stealing Jazz away from him. That was then Mr Harris's blue eyes met his. The man winked slowly at him, before strolling over.

"I don't mind." He muttered, before he turned to all of the boys, warning Jazz to be careful and telling them all to have a good time.

Leo turned to Jazz, feeling his enthusiasm bubbling up and threatening to overwhelm him.

"Come on guys, lets explore."

* * *

I'm not really sure what I think about this chapter... I might make it into a two parter. Feel free to tell me about whether or not you want me to make this into a two parter, and also if you want another Jadon chapter.


	8. Chapter 8

I am so incredibly sorry for how late this is. As I said with Knowing Leo, there really is no excuse and I can only apologise for how long it has taken me to write this. I hope that you can enjoy it anyway. I have decided that Jazz will be another three parter, so here is the second part. Also, as you all seem to want it so much, Jadon will have a special extra chapter which will be chapter ten. Thank you to anyone who faved or followed and I am really sorry for the wait.

B.E by Erin : There is going to be another Jadon chapter though you'll have to wait and see what P.O.V it's in.

Skyfir3S4kur4 : Don't worry, it's not too much trouble. And I have a strange fondness for Jazz, him and Jadon are probably my favourite OCs from LAL. I hope that you have fun at your con and that your cosplay goes to plan (I haven't cosplayed yet but I would like to). Bleach is a great anime (that I haven't finished yet) but my favourite is Ishida :)

Melancholy's Sunshine : Ooh, I like that idea. I'm definitely going to use that (I hope you don't mind). And a con gives me lots of opportunities for fun with the characters. Poor Jazz isn't going to know what hit him.

Ladie in Lace : Thanks, I'm glad that you like it. And Leo is a huge geek (as are the rest of the seven). I've been to two cons, but one is coming to my city next year so hopefully I'll get to that one. And there will be another Jadon chapter, I'm a little attached to him as well.

Creampuffs-and-fluff : I'm glad that you think it's original :) I didn't want the story to get repetitive, oh Leo finds a person from his past, they work through their issues yadda yadda. I wanted to express a little bit of each character's personality, and I think that a con really suits Jazz. Jadon will be back in chapter ten for a special chapter ;)

Zoethezany III : I'm glad that you like Jazz, and the thought of Leo dressing as charmander was just too adorable for me to ignore.

Cupcake Gal : Here is the second part :) I'm kinda happy that this one made you emotional, I like to think that Jazz has a deep connection with Leo and I wanted the seven to witness this first hand (as well as wanting to make them all cosplay).

Matt : Teehee, you'll have to see what happens with Jadon in chapter ten. It's going to be so much fun to write.

Sidda : We might be :) And that's a really tough question as I have so many favourite characters. Any of the assassins from assassin's creed would be fun, but I'd also love to be Legolas. I suppose Kida or Shizuo (from Durarara if you haven't seen it) would also be cool. And obviously Leo! The supersizedMcShizzle would also make a fabulous cosplay.

Hermes child awesomness : Then you shall have it all! I will definitely keep writing (despite my stupid inability to stick to a schedule as of late).

Bearah cubecars : Then this is the second part. The seven are going to have a field day with jazz.

Swedish-psycho-bear : Then you'll be delighted to know that there is another sequel called Knowing Leo. That is more of a linear sequel whereas this is a collection of short meetings. And yup, she is definitely on my character list.

ObsessedwReading : Thank you, and he will be seeing more of both of them :)

Connwaer Heap : Thanks for answering. And don't worry, Jazz is his gamer friend (the cafeteria scene about the barmaid) and the scene where Leo dresses as a cheerleader and dances to hollaback girl.

FairyTailShinigami : Ahh! I didn't think of that! There were just so many ideas to choose from, it was hard to make a decision. And it would have been cool to have Clarisse as Erza but she just isn't that close with the seven so I couldn't really justify including her. I could have Leo go as Natsu, but I prefer Gray so it would offend my delicate fangirl sensibilities. I should have thought of the Doctor though.

Senna Bluefire : That sounds fun! I'll include that in chapter ten, thanks for the suggestion.

LeoS2 : Thank you, and I will be doing both :)

Phoenix Heart : Is that France from Hetalia? (Please don't hate me if I'm wrong!)

Alvin6299 : Thanks, and here's the second part.

LONG LIVE BOOKS : Thank you, I'm happy that you enjoyed the previous chapters and I hope that you like this one as well.

Guest : The reason for the second costume was mostly because I couldn't choose, I only really thought of making it a two parter when I was dissatisfied at the end. It's now going to be a three parter. I'm glad that you'd be happy either way, as both days will be featured, however the second day is now going to have its own chapter.

Disclaimer : The rights to PJO and HOH are sadly still not in my possession. I also do not own the rights to the songs or any other franchises mentioned in this chapter.

* * *

"You are so cheating!"

"No dude, you just suck." Leo could hear Jason stifling a laugh as Leo beat Jazz in yet **another** game. The trio had traipsed around a bit more after parting ways with Jazz's dad, and Leo had scored some sweet souvenirs, including a few gifts for his friends and siblings back at camp. He probably would have ended up spending all of his money for the entire weekend if Jason hadn't reminded him that they had two days left after this one and that Leo could pick up more stuff over those two days.

It was then that Jazz had noticed the section dedicated to letting the con goers test some new games that would be coming out soon.

The boys had headed there immediately, and Leo had been kicking their butts at everything ever since.

"Leo, Jason!" Percy's voice sounded out behind the group just as Leo's onscreen character slammed Jazz's character into the ground with a ferocious kick. The K.O sign flashed, and Jazz groaned.

Leo turned away from the game to see Percy and Annabeth heading their way. Percy apparently didn't catch on to who Jazz was at first, but Leo noticed Annabeth's eyebrow raise in obvious recognition.

Jason also turned to greet the dynamic duo, and Jazz shot Leo an amused look.

"So is this the Aqua man and Hermione duo that you were telling me about?" His voice was heavily tinged with amusement, and Percy's eye's sparked.

"Is that Jazz?" Leo felt like whacking Percy. Way to make everything look suspicious. Jazz's eyes flicked over to Leo.

"I may have told them about you." He hoped that his expression suggested that he was telling the truth, he did not want to drag Jazz into the world of demigod drama. Jazz simply nodded however, and relief coursed through Leo's body.

"So as this idiot over here doesn't seem inclined on introducing us any time soon, I'm just going to take it upon myself. My name's Jazz and I knew Leo when we were a bit younger. I'm going to guess that you are Percy and Annabeth, right? Jazz smirked at as he held out a hand to Percy and then Annabeth.

"You guessed right. And Leo has told us about you."

"So what are we going to do now? Kicking your butts is getting kind of boring." Jazz shoved him playfully.

"Why don't we see if we can find any of the others? I'm sure that they'd all love to meet Jazz." Annabeth suggested, ever the source of good ideas.

Everyone agreed to this plan, Jazz was evidently curious about Leo's new friends, and the demigods wanted to check up on the others as well as allowing them to meet Jazz, someone who they had all respected whilst watching Leo's past.

The ice blond boy had given Leo some really good memories, bright spots in the mostly dark viewing of his memories. Leo knew that his friends were grateful for that, even though Jazz wouldn't get to learn that they had seen some of their time together.

"So Frank and Nico are probably still geeking out at the Mythomagic section, we should probably head there first." The others nodded and their party set out on a journey to locate the others.

One of the great things about Comic Con is that strange things tend not to even warrant a second glance. No one seemed the least bit bothered by the strange assortment of costumes that the small group were wearing.

It was nice to be able to dress up as weirdly or as creatively as you wanted and no one would comment. In fact, people were likely to compliment you on your choice of your cosplay. It was a great vibe, and Leo was glad to be sharing it with friends old and new. Now if they could just track down the missing members of their party then it would be perfect.

They'd scoured the entire card game area (which wasn't exactly small) and hadn't come across any of the other demigods. Leo hadn't expected Nico and Franck to spend the full day playing Mythomagic, but considering how much Nico loved the game, he had thought that they would have still been there now.

"How about we check by the entrance, see if any of them have gathered there?" Percy suggested, and they headed towards the entrance.

When they got there, they could see someone dressed as Spock excitedly chattering with someone dressed as Sasuke.

"I'm telling you mate, whatever special effects they're using are awesome! Even if their outfit combinations are a little weird for people participating in a monster fight re-enactment. Especially as it looks so professional, they could really be fighting demons out there!" Leo felt an icy shiver of dread sweep over his system.

All of the demigods understood that this could be very bad.

"Hey, why don't we go and check that out. I'm sure that your friends can be found after we see this?" Leo was relieved that Jazz had just given them a perfect excuse for checking out whether or not their friends were in trouble.

They hastily made their way outside, and swiftly located the fight due to the sheer number of people swarming around it.

It was in a nice open area, and the demigods (and Jazz) weaved through the crowd to reach the centre.

The scene was very unusual, even for Comic Con.

Jasmine and Wendy were tearing through monsters back to back whilst Ishida supported them with volleys of arrows that never strayed near any of the innocent people in the crowd. Hades was whirling through monster dust, his black blade flashing as numerous monsters were destroyed.

This odd bunch were joined by Charmander, Aqua Man, Superman and Hermione Granger. With these additions, the fight ended pretty quickly. Thankfully, no one had gotten hurt.

As the demigods caught their breath, someone in the crowd started clapping and cheering. Others joined in, but another group of people were questioning what had happened.

They way they had entered the fight was suspicious, and the fact that they weren't wearing costumes typically associated with monster fighting apparently put some doubts in people's minds as to the authenticity of the "staged fight".

Jazz was also looking puzzled from his position in the crowd.

Leo knew that there was only thing to do to salvage this situation.

"Guys, get into a V formation behind me." He ordered, and his friends followed his command.

Leo frantically sifted through his belt, piecing items together hurriedly to create what he needed to convince the crowd that nothing strange (at least by Comic Con's standards) was occurring.

He connected his phone to his new creation and handed it to Jazz.

"Hold this for me please." Jazz nodded, dumbfounded as Leo stepped back into formation. His friends were now all looking at him suspiciously.

The opening chords of Happy Synthesizer, Len and 96Neko version, began blaring out of the speaker that he had cobbled together.

With a deep breath, Leo began dancing, praying that his friends would catch on and would copy his basic choreography.

He risked a brief glance backwards to see that Piper and Hazel, who were the pair behind him, had begun to follow his motions, if a little cautiously on Hazel's part. He hoped that the others would join in.

"Flashmob!" Someone from the crowd yelled excitedly and people flocked behind the demigods, some following Leo's dance moves, others throwing in their own. Jazz cautiously placed the speaker on the floor near Leo before joining in.

There was now a huge throng of people all laughing and dancing behind him.

Leo had planned to break away from the flashmob with his friends once everyone was distracted, but as his play list switched over to the original Caramelldansen, Leo found himself dancing more and more.

They must have danced through at least seven songs by the time Leo finally reclaimed his phone and the crowd dispersed.

His friends were all flushed and panting from the exertion of non-stop, energetic dancing, but all of their red-tinged faces held wild grins. Even Nico had joined in, even if it was only for one or two songs.

They took a few minutes to recover from their mad dancing and, in Leo's case at least, loud singing.

After they had all calmed down, they headed back into the con together, determined to enjoy the last few hours of the day.

Though eventually, the first day of con fun did have to end. The group were headed towards the spot were Jazz was meant to be meeting up with his father.

When they were close, the other demigods broke away, saying goodbye to Jazz and saying that they hoped to see him again the next day.

Leo and Jazz were left to walk up to his Jazz's dad alone.

"Hello boys, did you have fun today?" His twinkling blue eyes, so like his son's, twinkled with amusement at their unkempt appearances and the bags that they were lugging around. The boys nodded.

"Well how about we exchange phone numbers and then meet up tomorrow at twelve for lunch? You can bring your friends." Leo smiled brightly, but then a pang of guilt ran through him.

"But I already monopolized Jazz today, don't you want a shot at kicking his butt at some of the games?" Leo said this in a jovial tone, but he had the sinking feeling that this might be the last time that he saw Jazz and his father in a while.

His thoughts were silenced by a hand landing on his head.

"Kid, I have to deal with him 365 days a year, I think I can handle one and a half days without him." Jazz started protesting this, and Leo smiled at the familiar banter between the father/son duo.

"Well if you're sure that it's okay... I'm sure I can keep him from bugging you!" Leo stuck his tongue out childishly and Jazz jokingly punched him in the arm. And then pulled him into a hug.

"I seriously missed you dude." Jazz muttered. Leo simply tightened his arms in reply.

"I missed you too." They were both suddenly lifted in the air as Mr Harris wrapped them both into a rib cracking hug.

"Aren't you two just adorable?" The man mocked the squirming boys before putting them down.

"Well, I guess that we'll see you tomorrow. If anything changes then text one of us. Goodbye Leo." Mr Harris turned and scooped up the bags that Jazz had dropped when he had been hauled into the air. Jazz gave Leo a look, and for the first time today, his eyes were sad.

"Don't run off without a proper goodbye this time." Jazz murmured before bolting after his father.

Leo fought down the sadness that filled him at these words. He had owed Jazz and his family more than just a letter.

He returned to his friends and quickly erased any trace of his morose feelings from his face.

"So, who's up for some food?"

Piper had summoned a ride for them with her near unlimited supply of money and they headed back to the hotel. As soon as they had arrived, however, instead of getting food they all charged into the boy's room to compare what they had bought.

It was unanimously decided that some of the best purchases were Leo's pile of Ao no exorcist, Annabeth's beautiful Lord of the Rings figures and Piper's lolita dress. Leo was pretty sure that Jason was going to suffer permanent damage from the amount of blood that had rushed to the son of Jupiter's cheeks when Piper had came out wearing the short, purple dress that was covered in ruffles, bows and white lace. She claimed that she had bought it as a joke, to mess with her siblings who were always nagging her about being more girly, but Leo had the feeling that making Jason stutter like an idiot was an extra bonus for the daughter of Aphrodite.

Once all of the goodies had been packed away and Piper was once again dressed in a tomboyish fashion, they finally headed down to eat.

Leo was amused to see Percy attempting to turn his food blue by squeezing blueberries all over it.

He was even more amused when a certain blond caught his eye across the room and had almost choked when he saw Leo and the demigods.

It turned out that Jazz and his father were staying at the same hotel as Leo and his friends. Who knew?

* * *

So, yeah, this has turned into another three parter (sorry). And I am still incredibly sorry about the wait, I will try my hardest to update at least once a week but college is really kicking my butt right now (why does Spanish need so many tenses?) Anyway, I'll see you next time :)


	9. Chapter 9

And I'm back with a new instalment of Reunions (still late though). I am trying, but juggling three stories (as well as the birthday fic that I'm doing for my friend) is quite difficult along with college work. Thank you for your continued patience, and I hope that you can forgive me for the erratic update schedule. Italics = dream.

Melancholy's Sunshine : I'm glad that you appreciated it as I really enjoyed writing it. And I might just wiggle that debate in somewhere.

Matt : It is such an amazing coincidence and not at all due to the fact that there is a higher being orchestrating their lives ;) And I'm sorry but I've never seen Star Vs. the Forces of Evil.

Connwaer Heap : That's good seeing as I keep writing them J Thanks for your understanding by the way. As much as I would love to let fanfiction come first, I really don't want to fail my A levels. They were fighting dracanae who were drawn by the scent of eight incredibly powerful demigods. I was an idiot who didn't realise that you could use PMs to answer reviews, and as I started out this way I just decided to continue it. I do have a Tumblr, but I never use it, I use my sisters instead.

Zoethezany III : You're very welcome. And I appreciate your reviews. I'm glad that you think it's awesome that I reply, I just like answering all of your questions and I feel that if you're taking the time to give me feedback then I should take the time to reply. Plus, it feels like I get to know you all, and I like the sense of community it gives me.

LONG LIVE BOOKS : Thank you, and I think that Jazz and Jason could also become close friends.

L120Writer Thank you for reviewing J And I'm happy that you like my back story for Leo, as much as I love Heroes of Olympus, I feel like Leo's back story was usually just glossed over so I like filling in the blanks.

ObsessedwReading : Thank you J

Sidda : If you want to call me Twin-Chan then go ahead. I think that you said "I had a little of my famous rum, wine and tequila mix and it's all Bella's fault, she's the one that tried to kill the only family member that doesn't hate me that is alive." Did I get it right? And I hope that you and your sister have made up. No, that's not rude, and don't worry, the story isn't on hiatus.

Guest : I'm happy that you like the fic, and I understand where you are coming from, but the reason that the fic is written in this style (short stories based around reuniting with people from Leo's past) is because making it into one story wouldn't work due to the circumstances. As it is a sequel for Learning about Leo, I feel like the characters don't need to be developed too much as they were already explained during that fic. And it would be illogical to make the story into just one plotline as there would be no way that Leo would be able to meet them all during one quest/adventure etc. I hope that you understand where I'm coming from.

OtakuNewWorldOrder : Wow, that's a lot of reviews! I'm glad that you like my story so much. And I agree with you on all three points, it would be a great band name, Gaia is a naughty potato and Leo is amazing.

Koolkat0207 : I'm glad that you enjoyed the Sparkle reunion. And cliffhangers are sort of my speciality, sorry. At first, I wasn't going to have any of his friends from the past be demigods, but then I realised that I had been unconsciously setting it up that way. I also love irony. And thank you, I'm glad that you think that I am a good author.

Disclaimer : Yeah, still not mine. Nothing but this plot and Jazz and Mr Harris are mine.

* * *

After dinner the demigods, Jazz and Mr Harris planned to retire to the hotel's meeting room.

First though, they headed up to their rooms to grab something to do. Leo grabbed his DS before they all relocated into the room that was reserved for guests to meet up and enjoy some company.

Jazz and his father were already there waiting. Mr Harris was reading a book whilst Jazz was clutching a DS and playing it with intense concentration. Leo grinned.

"Pokémon?" Jazz nodded and Leo sat down beside him, pulling out his DS. Jazz glanced over at him and his eyes glinted as he realised the challenge.

As they began battling ferociously, Frank and Nico were having a round of Mythomagic, using some of the new cards that they had purchased at the con. Jason was chatting calmly with Piper whilst Annabeth showed Percy something on her laptop.

Frank and Nico were close enough for Leo to watch over their game as his Pokémon rampaged through Jazz's team. Some of the blonde's party proved more of a challenge than others, but Leo was still pretty confident that he could win this.

"Isn't Pokémon kinda childish?" Leo and Jazz gasped in sync, tearing their eyes away from their battle to gaze in outrage at Frank.

"Says the one playing Mythomagic!" Leo spluttered, and Nico turned to glare at him instead.

"Mythomagic is a game of strategy and it teaches you about Greek mythology." The look on Nico's face implied that this was something that Leo should appreciate.

"Yeah, but Pokémon teaches strategy as well, you have to learn about types and type disadvantages/advantages. It also teaches you how to handle money as you have to decide whether to invest in poke balls or potions."Nico raised an eyebrow at Jazz's defence, and Leo realised that the younger demigod probably didn't know too much about Pokémon and could therefore be excused for his ignorance.

Frank, however, was a different story.

"Not only that but it encourages children to learn a little bit more about other cultures and languages. Sometimes when you click on a TV screen in someone's house it gives you basic Japanese phrases." Leo folded his arms, discarding his battle with Jazz for the moment. Jazz also switched his focus from the game to the real life discussion.

"And some of the stories can actually be quite deep, like in X and Y." Jazz proclaimed.

"Plus raising a good team can be really satisfying."

"And you can choose to play the game in the way you want, catch the Pokémon that you want and train them up to form your own team, or breed to get the best stats."

"The characters are all pretty awesome as well." Frank held up his hands in surrender at this barrage of reasons for why Pokémon is better than Mythomagic.

"Geez guys, I get it. But you can't deny that Mythomagic is great as well." Leo nodded swiftly to appease the son of Mars.

"I think that we should call it a night now, Jasper." The ice blond boy wrinkled his nose at his dad's use of his full name, but rose anyway.

"Night guys and we'll see you tomorrow at lunch?" All of the demigods bid the Harris men a good night. As the father-son duo departed, Leo stretched and yawned.

"I'm going to head up as well." His friends gave him a few nods of acknowledgement, and Nico and Hazel also got up. Leo switched off his DS, mourning slightly the fact that the battle had not been completed.

"I'm kind of tired as well." Hazel flushed as she let out a jaw cracking yawn. Nico strolled after them, eyelids drooping slightly.

They waved to the older demigods and headed up to their rooms.

There was no talking, Nico and Hazel were clearly wiped by the day's events and Leo didn't blame them. Comic Con must be a huge culture shock for the two kids from the past, even if Nico had spent the majority of it in the card section, and the fight must have also taken a lot out of them.

He got changed and then surveyed his purchases for one last time before crawling into bed, happy with how his first day at the Con had turned out despite the monster attack.

He drifted off to sleep with a small smile on his face.

 _A loud banging startled Leo as he attempted to finish his homework. He moved over to his window, curiously peeking through his curtains._

 _His foster parents were out and Leo wasn't meant to let anyone in, but the knocking was obnoxiously loud and he needed full concentration to complete his homework._

 _A man in a large black coat was hammering at the door, his enormous fist virtually bashing the door off of its hinges._

 _Leo contemplated going down and getting the phone to call his foster parents, but he would have to walk past a window and the man would surely see him. He cursed himself for leaving his mobile downstairs, he hadn't wanted to be distracted from the essay that he was writing._

 _Suddenly, there was a loud crash and Leo glanced down to see that the man was now physically launching his shoulder into the door which was bouncing and rattling ominously._

 _Alarmed, Leo sprang away from his chair and stumbled down the stairs, locking his door behind him and ducking low to try and avoid being sighted through the window. He snatched up his phone and retreated, bolting up the stairs as quickly as he could._

 _Under his bed was a familiar rucksack, already near full with his belongings. He chucked in the rest of the items that he actually cared about and settled it hastily on his back._

 _Then he whipped out his phone. There was a clatter downstairs and Leo knew that the door had been breached._

 _As he dialled 911 he slinked out of his bedroom and to the back of the house. He knew that there was a window back there and he had planned out how to climb down from it on the first night that he had spent in the property._

 _The operator came on as Leo shimmied down the drainpipe, but their concerned voice was drowned out by an eerie wail of "Leoooooooo" from the house._

 _Leo froze about halfway down as the phone operator calmly asked about what the emergency was._

 _He finished his descent swiftly, and began running as soon as his feet grazed the floor._

 _He rattled off the details to the operator about where the house was and about the intruder but he left out the fact that the man had called his name. He had enough weirdness in his file; he didn't need them to know that the man was after him._

 _With a deep, saddening certainty, Leo knew that he had to run. He had spent too long here already. But before he left, he would have to deliver an important letter._

 _Because if he said goodbye in person then Jazz and his parents would probably convince him to stay. And that wouldn't be safe for anybody._

 _Leo remembered this well, what he didn't remember was a grinning vision of Gaia standing in the middle of the road before him. This definitely hadn't happened the first time round._

 _Taking a deep breath, Leo reminded himself that he had defeated Gaia, that dirt lady could never rise again. This mantra didn't stop a chill from spreading up his spine as her sleepy face turned towards him._

 _"Always running. Always leaving other people behind to deal with your messes." Her tone was mocking as she gestured behind her._

 _And there, lying in the middle of the street, bloody and broken, was Jazz and his family._

 _The man who had broken into his house was standing over them. And before Leo's eyes, the man grew and grew._

 _Clytius stood before him, grinning viciously._

 _"Time to extinguish your flame little demigod."_

 _And then Leo was falling and burning Camp Half-Blood little more than a blur beneath him. Leo knew that he was dying, could feel his flesh melting in a way that should have been impossible, Festus' superheated metal burning into his thighs as he plummeted. And instead of seeing the welcoming buzz of Elysium, Leo found himself gazing into the dark abyss of Tartarus._

Leo jolted awake, the feeling of tears an expected but still disappointing find. His friends' staring at him worriedly, however, was an unexpected and disappointing find.

The dismayed looks on their faces caused his own face to crumple.

"Are you okay?" Percy's concerned eyes hovered above him. And for once, Leo didn't even try to dissemble. He shook his head, feeling tears trickle out of his eyes as he clenched them shut in anguish.

His past had always haunted him, and he had hated leaving Jazz like that, but now his nightmares were even worse. He now knew that monsters were really out there and that (like most of the human race) they despised his guts. He had died and even though he had come back, Leo was still plagued by nightmares about that final battle.

His skin cracking as all moisture was leeched from him, the smell of burning hair and the painful rawness of his throat as he screamed in agony. Leo hadn't told his friends just how aware he had been whilst dying; he hadn't wanted to make them suffer. But that meant that his burden hadn't been lessoned and it was eating him up inside. He just wanted a hug.

His friends unknowingly obliged him as he felt comforting arms settling around his shoulders. Surprisingly, from what he could deduce from the coldness of the arms, it was Nico who had taken the initiative.

Not one to look a gift horse in its mouth at this moment, Leo melted into the embrace, seeking the knowledge that he was safe with his friends and that the rampaging fire in his gut could be doused by their presence.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Jason's patented big brother tone had come out, a tone that both Leo and Nico were well accustomed to as the two youngest boys on the team.

"It's fine, I just… can we just stay here for a few minutes?" What Leo really meant was do you mind holding me for a little longer, though he would never actually say that out loud.

Nico's arms tightened and Leo knew that his under-lying message had been heard.

Another pair of arms wrapped around them, then another, then another until the boys were all crowded together on the bed, huddled together. It wasn't the most comfortable thing in the world (Leo was elbowed in the gut numerous times) but it was soothing, and Leo felt some of the stress from his dream draining away.

There was a knock on the door, and most of the boys sprang away, blushing lightly. Percy stayed wrapped around him, however, carding a hand through Leo's hair.

"Are you sure you're okay?" He questioned lowly. Leo wasn't okay - and he knew that he wasn't okay – but he just wanted to get to the Con. He was sure that being among his people (his fandom people, not his demigod people) would cheer him up.

It was time to become Ezio Auditore Da Firenze. And that meant swagger.

Leo flounced down to breakfast in his full costume, smirking at the strange looks that he got from people not attending the Con.

It was pretty easy to decipher who was going and who wasn't, not only from the fandom attire (or lack thereof) but also from the bands around their wrists that proudly proclaimed their status as Con-goers.

His friends were already settled into the tables next to Jazz and his father (there was no table large enough to host them all).

Leo tipped his head in greeting, and his fellow male demigods all shot him inquiring glances.

They weren't very subtle about it as Annabeth's shrewd gaze darted between them all and alighted upon Leo as the focus of the concerned looks. Cue another round of worried looks from the girls this time. Even the Harris men appeared to pick up on the tension as their twin sets of blue eyes also settled on Leo.

"Buongiorno (Good morning)!" Leo gave a flamboyant bow, attempting to communicate his desire to just forget about what had happened. His eyes sought out Nico who nodded, affirming that Leo's pronunciation of the Italian greeting had been at the very least passable if not spot on.

After that breakfast was a pleasant affair, though Leo knew that questions were still lurking in his friends' minds.

Despite the fact that they were at the same hotel, the agreement was still on for Mr Harris to spend some time with Jazz before they all met up at lunch. The meeting place was re-affirmed before they separated after breakfast, the demigods heading to the car that Piper had arranged to pick them up and the Harris men, insisting that they were fine with getting the train, headed off towards the station.

As soon as the car doors had closed, Leo found himself facing the Spanish inquisition.

"What's going on?" Annabeth was terrifying when you withheld information from her. There was a brief moment of awkward silence, and then Leo sighed. Slumping back in his seat, he tugged his hood up to shadow his face.

"I had a nightmare." He mumbled, feeling childish in his confession.

"Oh, Leo." Piper's voice was sympathetic, yet Leo could still feel his cheeks heating up in shame.

"I just want to forget about it and enjoy the con." Hazel gave him a stern look.

"That won't help you." Leo's frown grew.

"I don't want to spoil the con, can you just drop it?" His friends all raised their eyebrows, and Leo sighed internally. Sarcastic looks in unison, great.

"Leo, you really need to talk to us. We are here for you." As Frank said this, Leo felt the old desire to run. He didn't want to discuss his nightmare, didn't want to reveal how much pain his death had wrought. Didn't want to think about how he had left another group of people that he cared about behind.

It was then that Leo's window of opportunity for escape presented itself. They pulled into the car park, and Leo subtly tensed his muscles. He had everything he needed for the day scattered around the various pockets of his costume.

"We want to…" Percy was cut off by Leo launching himself at the door, yanking it open and sprinting across the car park. He could hear the outraged shouts of his friends behind him, but Leo was in his element now. As much as he hated his instinct to run, it often came in handy.

He knew that he was the fastest, it wasn't showing off it was true. He'd had the most practice.

Plummeting into the Con, Leo hastily showed off his wristband before darting throughout the stalls and blending in with the crowds effortlessly, like the assassin that he was dressed as.

He remained like this for around ten minutes before realising how truly stupid he was being. Not only had he separated away from all of his friends in an incredibly busy environment, he also didn't want to find them again.

The interrogation was not needed and definitely not appreciated. Coming to Comic Con had been an effort to distract him from all that had happened, why did they have to dredge it all up again?

Weaving through the crowds with all the stealth of the assassin whose costume he was wearing, Leo attempted to lose himself in the wonder of the stalls.

But his guilty conscious wouldn't let him, and Leo found himself drifting towards the spot that they had assigned as their designated meeting area for if any of them got lost.

Fiddling with his phone, Leo once again sighed.

"Time to face the music." He uttered quietly, and selected Jason's name. Hopefully the older demigod would keep up his usual calm attitude instead of ripping him to shreds verbally like the others would.

"LEO!" Or not. Leo held the phone away from his ear, and was awkwardly reminded of Jazz's phone call from his father the previous day. His eardrums would take a while to recover.

"Hey?" Leo intended to say this nonchalantly, but it came out more like a timid question.

"Don't you 'hey' me! Do you know how worried we've been?" Leo winced.

"I can guess." He muttered, and instantly regretted it.

"You guess? You guess? Leo, we were already worried about you due to your nightmare, and then you just run off into Comic Con by yourself." Evidently the other demigods had stuck together and Jason had clearly put him on speaker phone as that lovely scolding tone could only belong to Annabeth.

"Yeah, well." Leo leant against the wall and shifted a little bit.

"Where are you?" That was Percy.

"I'll tell you if you promise to ditch the topic of my nightmare, at least until the Con is over." His friends were clearly deliberating over this, but then the need to find him overwhelmed their desire to help him with his nightmares.

"Fine. But after the Con, you will talk to us." Leo shuddered, and bitterly wondered if Piper hadn't slipped a little bit of charmspeak into that imperative.

"I'm at our designated meeting area." He ground out. A moment of stunned silence followed on the other end, and Leo contemplated whether or not they had just decided to sprint towards him in case he ran off again instead of finishing the call.

"Dam, why didn't we think to check there?" Came Percy's slightly muted voice.

"We'll be there in a few minutes, don't you dare move." Jason warned him, and then the call clicked off.

Leo felt the knot of guilt tighten in his stomach as he realised that his friends had been searching for him.

He slid into an Assassin's creed style crouch as he waited. A few people came up to take pictures with him, and he grabbed a couple of people as they went past, but other than that he remained in the same position.

His hood was covering a lot of his face and as such he almost missed his friends' arrival.

He couldn't miss the cold aura that surrounded them as they hovered over him.

"Don't try that stunt again." Leo shivered at the authority in Frank's voice.

"Bene (okay)." Nico nodded, apparently approving of his use of Italian.

"We decided whilst looking for you (Leo flinched at the anger/concern that dripped off of this statement) that we would all stick together today. So what do you want to do?" Leo's eyes widened minutely in surprise at Annabeth's question.

"You still want to know what I want to do?" Here Annabeth's frown melted into a fond smile.

"This trip is for you, dummy." Piper answered, and Leo felt a bashful grin creep over his face.

"Well, there are some good panels on today, if you don't mind coming to watch them?" They all grinned at him, and for the first time since this day had begun, Leo felt truly happy.

"Lead the way, repair boy."

A few hours later and Leo was raving enthusiastically about the panels. They had been so much fun. The demigods had even managed to bag some free gifts from the presenter. And before one of the panels, one guy dressed as Star Lord had challenged a fellow cosplayer to a dance off and it had been epic.

Annabeth checked her watch (ever the responsible adult) and announced that they had an hour and a half before they had to meet up with the Harrises.

They chose to spend it trawling the stores and picking up even more goodies.

As they headed past the card game section, Nico and Frank snagged his arms and directed him through the people gathered around to play. The other demigods followed, looking baffled.

"We found something yesterday that we wanted to show you, but we forgot about it until now." Frank informed him. And then Leo found himself standing in front of a cardboard cut-out of the two Hephaestus images from the originals series and the modern expansion pack. His dad looked awesome, even his usually hideous features seemed less repulsive when placed in tandem with his awesome steam punk outfit in the modern image and his amazingly detailed original version. Leo felt a swell of pride at just how epic his dad looked. Most people judged Hephaestus on the fact that he was supposed to be monstrously ugly, yet here he just looked cool. The vendor who had been standing on the other side of the counter helping a kid choose some cards suddenly joined them, and smiled as if in recognition at Frank and Nico.

"Are you two going to remember to come and collect this before leaving today?" He inquired playfully, and Leo turned to his friends in confusion. The two looked a little awkward.

"We sort of bought it for you but forgot to come and collect it." Leo found himself laughing, touched by their thoughtfulness but amused by their forgetfulness.

The stallholder winked.

"Don't worry about it boys, I'll hold it for you." The demigods thanked him, and as they walked away, Leo made sure to thank the son of Hades and the son of Mars.

"So Mythomagic is good then?" Nico teased, though his tone also held a note of shyness.

"I guess" Leo made it sound as if conceding this point hurt, but inside he was glowing. His friends were really making him feel appreciated. His guilt from earlier sharpened, and Leo halted.

Gradually his friends stopped as well and gathered around him.

"What's wrong?" Hazel's anxious tone made the knife of guilt that was plunged into his gut twist.

"I'm sorry about before." Grief echoed in his voice. A cool (compared to his skin) hand tipped his head upwards, two fingers on his chin forcing him to look into Jason's eyes.

"Don't do it again and it's forgiven." He stated, and the knife disappeared. The wound would have remained and festered if Piper hadn't grabbed his hand.

"Cheer up Repair boy, we all do stupid things sometimes and we are all forgiven for them." Piper's radiant smile coerced a smile from his own mouth.

"Come on guys, it's time to head for lunch." Leo visibly brightened at this, and virtually bounced towards the place where they would be meeting up with Jazz and Mr Harris.

He didn't notice Percy and Jason lingering behind and shooting each other worried, big brother glances.

It took quite a bit of searching, but soon the group was complete. It was hard to locate the blonds due to the sheer amount of abnormal hair colours, luminous costumes and bizarre face paint, but they did locate them in the end.

The demigods all flopped down around the others, and then Piper and Jason took orders and money before heading up to brave the food queues. Percy followed; after all, it would be difficult for just two demigods to carry over lunch for seven people. Jazz and Mr Harris had already purchased their lunch and were happily munching away as they all engaged in a casual conversation.

Yet Leo couldn't help sneaking peeks at them occasionally, as if to ascertain that they were safe and alive. His dream had really shaken him up, and although Gaia and her giant spawn had been defeated, there were many other dangers that could plague his friend and his friend's family.

He tried to keep his worries covert, his friends had been persuaded to abandon the topic of his dream but they would start fussing over him again if he gave them any hint as to what his dream had been about.

When they had been forced into watching his memories, they had seen a lot of his worst recollections. But he'd lived a pretty crappy life and many bad memories had been left unseen and untold. So had many good memories. Leo didn't want to give his friends any reason to start considering that Hera had left a lot of the darkness of his past unexplored, though, so he couldn't tell them a lot of things without the fear of dragging them into the murkier waters of his past.

It wasn't that he didn't trust them, he did. And he was pretty certain that they knew it. He just didn't want to burden them even more than he already had.

"Leo…?" His head whipped up and his cheeks coloured as he became aware of the fact that his friends (including Jazz and Mr Harris) were all surveying him.

He ducked his head in embarrassment, and his shame increased upon observing that his meal had been delivered.

"Sorry, I got distracted thinking about all of the awesome things that I have seen and bought so I wasn't really paying attention" Nobody seemed appeased, but his friends wary of calling him on his bull in front of the other two, and the Harrises also seemed to be thinking along a similar line, though clearly neither group comprehended this.

Leo thanked all of the Gods for not letting them all gang up on him.

He hoped that the matter was dropped and gradually the tension seeped from his body as the conversation was steered to better topics such as the con and fandoms.

When they all were finished eating, they sorted out the groups that they would be going round in for the rest of the day.

They were largely similar to the other day, though Frank and Nico gained the addition of Hazel whilst Percy and Annabeth gained Piper. Though they couldn't say anything in front of mortals, the attack yesterday had rattled them slightly so bigger groups seemed like a safer choice. Leo and Jason were going to be wandering around with Jazz and Mr Harris.

They split, and as their quartet headed off, Mr Harris engaged Jason in a conversation about what he thought of the Con. As they got into the discussion, Jazz grabbed Leo's wrist and held him back, forcing them to dawdle until some distance had been gained between the two blonds in front and themselves.

"What was all that about before?" Leo knew that he was rumbled, Jazz was unshakeable. He was like a hellhound with a ball; if he set his mind on getting an answer then he would get one no matter how much Leo tried to weasel his way out of it.

"I sort of had a bad dream this morning." Jazz's face crumpled in sympathy.

"That sucks." He uttered quietly, and Leo felt a pang as he realised just how much he had missed Jazz.

"Yeah, it did."

"What was it about?" Leo frowned. He couldn't say anything about the demigod aspect of the dream, but maybe he could just tell Jazz a little bit about the rest?

"It was about the day that I left. The house had been broken into, and I ran away. In the… in the nightmare you and your parents were murdered because I ran away." Jazz cocked a hesitant grin.

"Why would that happen?" Leo knew that Jazz wouldn't even be attempting a smile if he knew about the very real possibility of monsters murdering Leo and his friends.

"Because I always cause trouble for the people that I care about." Jazz came to a grinding halt, and as he was still gripping Leo's arm, he was also forced to cease walking. Leo hoped that he wasn't going to give him any empty assurances that he had never caused trouble for anybody as a lie like that would make him lose some respect for his friend.

"Of cause you caused trouble for us." Then again, maybe a lie would have been less hurtful than the matter of fact way Jazz declared that. Evidently some of his shock and hurt showed, as Jazz rolled his eyes.

"That's just part of being friends. I caused trouble for you as well. The point is that we also helped each other out a lot. No friendship – in fact no relationship of any kind - is flawless and if it was then I wouldn't trust it. Human beings are destined to get on each other's nerves at some point, but that doesn't mean that we all have to hate each other. Sure, you could be a pain in the butt, and a right brat when you wanted to be, but you were still funny, kind and generous. You were willing to ignore your own problems in favour of helping others out and although you were incredibly smart you were also extremely humble and never showed off about it." Leo felt his cheeks glowing with a warm, red hue at Jazz's impassioned speech.

"So you forgive me for leaving without a proper goodbye?" Leo's voice was a little squeaky; he was still shocked over just how emphatic his friend had been.

"Yes. But if you do it again then I'll throw you under a bridge with a troll." Leo laughed at the mental image, and then found himself being pulled into a quick hug. Although it lasted only a handful of seconds, the hug warmed Leo completely.

As they drew back, they became aware of their audience.

Jason and Mr Harris were smiling at them with compassion and understanding, but a few other people were staring at them in confusion. After all, it wasn't every day that you saw Ezio Auditore hugging the dragonborn.

A beat of hesitant silence rang out, and Leo felt incredibly awkward and self-conscious.

"I always thought Ezio was gay." One voice rang out smugly, causing Leo to become even more flustered. Jazz didn't help as he simply started laughing at Leo's face, and at the debates that were now occurring as people fiercely defended their view of Ezio's sexuality.

As the debates raged on, Leo tugged Jasper over to Jason and Mr Harris, and kept walking, expecting the others to fall in behind him.

A hand landed heavily on his shoulder, and he turned to see Mr Harris looking at him with fond eyes.

"It's not often that I say this, but my son's right." Jazz squawked in protest at this, but Mr Harris' eyes remained riveted on Leo's face.

Even if you did sometimes inconvenience us, none of us minded. No matter how many problems you cause, you will always be welcome in my home." Leo would have been humiliated by the tears currently flooding his face, but he knew that the others wouldn't think less of him.

Jason leant in.

"I agree with my fellow blond haired, blue eyed men." As Leo pulled himself together, Mr Harris and Jazz shared a devious smirk.

"Hey, Jason does look sort of like us." Jazz's smirk widened.

"Well, as Leo seems to see him as a brother, that does technically make him my son." Leo whipped his head towards Mr Harris.

"Consider that your unofficial adoption." Jason also looked stunned as the Harrisses once again shared a look, though this time it was a very genuine, sincere expression.

"In fact, anybody who can earn Leo's trust can be considered part of our family. Leo, if you are ever in our neighbourhood, feel free to stop by and don't hesitate to bring your friends." Leo swallowed thickly, the lump in his throat making the action more difficult than necessary.

"Thank you." They simply smiled at him and an equally overwhelmed Jason before tugging them around the Con.

The rest of the day was spent in a much lighter manner. Jokes flew between the group as they bantered back and forth, buying souvenirs and taking pictures with amazing cosplayers.

They were still all chuckling as they met up with the others. Their laughter increased upon seeing Nico and Frank propping up the Hephaestus cut out.

As with the previous day the demigods separated from the other two as they headed home. Leo had been afraid that they were going to start quizzing him as soon as his butt touched the seat, but Jason silenced them with a look.

The good mood persisted all throughout the journey, and throughout dinner which they again shared with their friends.

But then Mr Harris made a statement that sort of brought down the mood.

"Me and Jazz are heading home tomorrow." Leo could tell that Annabeth was holding back on correcting the grammar of that declaration out of sheer politeness.

Though his amusement at watching Annabeth grit her teeth due to bad grammar was seriously dampened by the fact that he wouldn't be able to spend the next day with Jazz.

His old friend seemed to pick up on his mood (he'd always had an uncanny ability to sense Leo's mood) as he reached over and squeezed his hand.

"You are obligated to visit us regularly and to bring this rabble along with you." Leo forced a smile, and then Jason also leaned forwards.

"Hey, you can't call your own family rabble." The son of Jupiter winked at Leo, and they quartet from earlier all chuckled at the bewildered looks on everybody else's faces.

"I can call you whatever I want, land of the free remember." As Jazz and Jason descended into a playful squabble, Leo decided that he was going to make the most of the time that they had left together.

Dinner was hastily finished, and Leo turned to Jazz.

"Jasper, I do believe that we have unfinished business." Jazz remained uncomprehending for a brief moment, before the meaning dawned on him.

"Our Pokémon battle awaits."

The next morning, all of the demigods were gathered in the hotel lobby as the other two checked out. As soon as he formal stuff was taken care of, Jazz handed his suitcase to his father and virtually tackled Leo.

"You better visit, your princess is waiting." Leo smirked through the sadness.

"How would you know, aren't you still to bust flirting with the barmaid?" They both laughed as they withdrew from the hug, and Jazz turned to Jason, pulling the startled lightning wielder into a hug as well.

Mr Harris wrenched him into another rib cracking hug.

"I'm glad that you found a home, son, even if it wasn't with us." Leo inhaled deeply.

"I'm going to miss you both." Mr Harris laughed heartily.

"You won't have to miss us for too long, as soon as Mrs Harris hears about us meeting up with you, she will be clamouring to see you again. Hell, she is probably going to spam you with calls until she gets a chance to fuss over you again."

Once the hugs were over with, the Harris men shook hands with the other demigods and repeated the offer that they had made to Leo and Jason, they were all welcome at casa Harris.

Even though the absence of the father son pair was notable, the third day was still incredibly enjoyable. After they checked out of their hotel and got ready to head home, Leo once again thanked Piper for her generosity. The daughter of Aphrodite had shrugged off all praise, saying that gaining another brother who was uninterested in make up made the trip worth it.

Leo truly felt as if the experience had been cathartic. Sure, he had died, but he was alive now and he had a lot of people who he cared about and who in turn cared about him.

"So who gets to sit next to Hephaestus?" He asked cheerfully.

* * *

Well, I hope the length of this chapter made it worth it. Next up is the special extra Jadon chapter. I'll see you all next time.


	10. Chapter 10

So, back by popular demand, here is Jadon in a unique chapter of Reunions. I know that you've been waiting a while for this so I hope that it turns out the way you wanted.

Melancholy's Sunshine : I can just imagine a giant battle with the children of Hecate/trivia enchanting cards so they actually have affects, and Hephaestus/Vulcan creating mechanical Pokémon and poke balls. And there are probably different sets of Mythomagic cards for every major set of myths. I will do Rich Witch sometime, but this chapter will be a Jadon one. And, yes what happens at cons never stays at cons.

Sidda : Thank you Sidda :) and everyone should puke rainbows at least once in their life, it purges the excess feels. And of course you're awesome.

CrazyBlueOwl : Then you will really enjoy this chapter.

ObsessedwReading : I'm glad that you enjoyed it. And I love their friendship as well. Maybe he will tell them about his nightmares, maybe not ;) It depends on how the story flows.

Connwaer Heap : My sister's tumblr is called Kisshufan4ever. Leo's friends are great, they are learning how to deal with Leo in the best way. Maybe I'll do another chapter with Jazz and his dad later, I might even include Jazz's mum.

Skyfir3S4kur4 : Too much fluff can do serious damage to both your teeth and your body. And I' glad you enjoyed the reference, I love the Assassin's Creed games and I was playing 2 most recently. And I'll keep being awesome if you keep being awesome ;)

ZoethezanyIII : It's fine, you don't have to leave a review at all so I appreciate it even if you aren't logged in. And I read/write fanfictions in college sometimes as well (though I'm usually on a free when I do). I'm happy that you liked it :)

LONG LIVE BOOKS : I'm glad that it made up for it, I hate disappointing people.

Disclaimer : I own Jadon and the plot of this fanfic. Anything else is in the hands of Rick Riordan.

* * *

Jadon's P.O.V

Jadon was admittedly a little underwhelmed. The demigods had made Camp Half-Blood out to be absolutely amazing, yet he could only see an old tree with something gold draped over its branches.

Leo was smirking at him knowingly, and he couldn't help feeling that he was missing something.

That was when Percy and Annabeth had stepped back through an invisible barrier. As they had travelled, Jadon had got to know the other demigods a little better and find out what Leo had been up to after he had left.

But Jadon got the feeling that they were still leaving things out, keeping him in the dark. Especially when they talked about the Giant war and how Leo had defeated Gaia. Jadon was absolutely certain that some details were being left out.

Jadon was snapped out of his contemplation by a warm hand enveloping his. He fought down blush as he looked down at Leo's cheeky grin. Maybe it was a bit pathetic to still have feelings for the Latino after all these years, but Leo was just so lovable.

"Do you want to see the camp?" The younger boy's voice was warm, teasing, and Jadon flushed as he realised that the others had all gone through the barrier and that he and Leo were alone.

"Sorry." Leo chuckled.

"It's fine. I know that you probably still have a lot to think about." Jadon nodded hurriedly. Yes, he did have a lot to think about. And most of it was about the smaller boy in front of him.

Leo tugged him through whatever the invisible barrier was.

Jadon gasped at what was revealed. The camp was huge, sprawling across the landscape. There was so much to take in. Jadon retracted his earlier statement, he was now definitely overwhelmed.

"Welcome to Camp Half-Blood." This was Annabeth, the incredibly smart one. Leo had told him that Annabeth had been at camp since she was seven, and that she knew more about the place than pretty much any other camper. He'd also been informed that there was another Camp, Camp Jupiter, for the Roman kids.

Apparently there had been a few difficulties between Greek and Roman demigods before the final battle with Gaia, but the camps were now united and apparently there were portals between the two that were maintained regularly by Hecate/Trivia children.

Jadon was a little uncertain about whether or not he was a Greek or Roman demigod, but he hoped that he was a Greek like Leo.

Jadon was once again snapped out of his thoughts, though this time it was by a beautiful girl launching herself at Leo. Jadon unconsciously shifted into a more defensive stance, but Leo was laughing as he hugged the girl so Jadon relaxed his posture.

Some tension still thrummed in his shoulders though.

And then the girl kissed Leo.

Jadon felt as if ice cold water had been poured over his head. Leo… Leo had a girlfriend. He looked down, feeling stupid as tears began to sting his eyes.

Why was he being so ridiculous? Of course Leo had found a girlfriend. Jadon had already known that Leo wasn't interested in him romantically. But there had been a small flicker of hope when he had had the dream of Leo rescuing him from his position as an outcast on the streets.

"Jadon?" Leo's voice was gentle, but Jadon couldn't bear to look up and reveal the humiliating evidence of his foolish hopes.

He turned tail and ran. He heard their voices calling out for him, but luckily it didn't seem as if Leo had been expecting him to run, so he had a head start on the faster boy.

Of course, Jadon hadn't had no idea where he was going. He simply plummeted through the nearby forest, branches and vines tearing at his face and his clothes.

He stumbled into a clearing and inhaled deeply, hearing the sounds of a chase behind him. He couldn't stay in front of Leo for long.

Jadon then awkwardly realised that he wasn't alone. Two boys were sitting on the grass, holding hands and staring up at him.

They took one look at his tear streaked face, and obviously they could hear the crashing sounds of pursuers behind him, and the dark haired one leapt up, grabbing his hand.

The world seemed to warp around them, and then the trio were standing on the beach. Jadon retched, that had been a horrendous feeling. Jadon had been deposited on a sandy beach, water twinkling in his peripheral vision.

"Are you okay?" This was the blond boy. Jadon wondered why the boy looked somewhat familiar. He realised with a start that the boy had similar features and colouring to him. Could this be one of his new demigod siblings?

"What was that?" Jadon decided to ask the most pressing question first, he could find out whether or not he was related to the other boy later.

"Shadow travel. Now why were you running away from the others? Are you a new camper?" That was the dark haired boy again. Jadon was tempted to press for further details about this 'shadow travel', but he had just caught sight of the wicked sword that the dark haired boy had resting on his hip, and he didn't feel like messing with that.

"Yeah, I'm a new camper. Leo and the others just brought me here." Jadon neglected to mention that he had been running away from the others because his last hope of ever having his crush be returned had just been crushed before his very eyes.

"Ah, Chiron said that they'd iris messaged him to say that a new camper was joining us." The blond smiled sunnily, before sticking his hand out.

"My name's Will, Head counsellor for Apollo."

"Hah!" Jadon suddenly exclaimed, causing the other two too jump in surprise. Jadon flushed.

"Sorry. It's just; I'm apparently a son of Apollo as well. I thought before that we looked kind of similar." Will grinned at him again as they shook hands enthusiastically.

"My name is Nico Di Angelo." The dark haired boy interjected quietly, before he two shook Jadon's hand. His hand was like ice, but Jadon restrained from flinching. He didn't want to look rude in front of his newly discovered sibling and the boy who had rescued him from having an awkward confrontation with Leo.

"So who is your Godly parent, if you don't mind me asking?" Nico's eyes seemed a little wary, and Jadon braced himself to back-pedal swiftly, but then Nico answered.

"I'm the son of Hades." Jadon felt his jaw drop.

"Dude, that's awesome!" Nico and Will both looked at him as if he was insane.

"Really?" Nico appeared sceptical, so Jadon nodded emphatically.

"Isn't Hades one of the most powerful Gods? Plus, he has one of the most important jobs." Nico flushed, and Will stared at him in amazement.

"Did I say something weird?"

"Most people don't think that being a son of Hades is cool." Nico's voice was flat, but Jadon had the feeling that underneath that neutral demeanour, a lot of pain was hidden.

"Well I think it is." They both smiled at him then, Nico's faint and somewhat disbelieving whilst Will was beaming at him.

"So are you going to tell us why you were running away from the others?" Jadon really didn't want to ruin his chance of being accepted here before he even got properly introduced to everyone, but some instinct told him that he could trust these two. They had been holding hands after all; maybe they were in a relationship. Maybe they'd understand.

"I have had a crush on Leo for years and I just found out that he had a girlfriend when she ran up and kissed him." Nico winced, and Will's eyes turned sympathetic. But then confusion filtered into both of their expressions.

"Leo Valdez?" Jadon didn't appreciate the question in their words. Why shouldn't he have a crush on Leo, was Leo somehow not worthy of having someone's affection to these two? They evidently understood his expression, and they instantly attempted to alleviate his anger.

"It's not strange that you have a crush on Leo, he's a very likeable person. We just thought that Leo had spent most of his life on the run." Will's words calmed him.

"Yeah, he did. But we spent some time together in a gang when he was 10."

"And you've had a crush on him since then?" Jadon bristled slightly at Nico's inquiry, but he knew that it was in good faith so he replied.

"He pretty much saved my life. He gave me purpose and helped me out and he was just so forgiving and bright and kind…" Jadon trailed off at the sympathetic yet sad looks on his fellow demigods faces.

"You've got it bad." Will stated simply, and Jadon once again felt his cheeks flare with heat and colour.

Nico then wandered over to the very edge of the shoreline, sitting down so that the water gently lapped at his shoes but didn't soak him. Will followed, and Jadon decided to copy them, sitting in the space that they left between them for him to sit in.

"I had a crush on a straight boy once." Jadon jolted, eyes flitting to Nico in shock. The son of Hades seemed so happy with Will, Jadon couldn't imagine him pining over a straight boy when he had someone so clearly infatuated with him.

"His name is Percy Jackson, and if you came in with the seven then you've already met him. He saved my life when I was ten." Jadon's eyes widened in further surprise, turning to his brother, only to discover that Will was staring out at the waves with a wistful look on his face. Jadon couldn't help but wonder whether or not Will had been around for Nico's crush on Percy, and whether or not he had had feelings for the son of Hades then.

"I had a crush on him for years. But he was slowly falling in love with one of his best friends, Annabeth. I watched as the person I had a crush on drifted more and more away from me, the annoying child who he'd been forced to rescue. And then, to make it worse," A dark look crossed Nico's face, and Will looked over to him with concern on his lightly tanned face, "My sister died when he had promised to protect her."

It was Jadon's turn to feel sympathetic. Losing a sibling because the one you loved failed to protect her must have really sucked.

"Plus, I'm originally from the 1930s, a time when homophobia was incredibly common. I hated myself, I hated Percy and I hated the entire world. Everything seemed to be conspiring against me, and my crush on Percy just made everything worse, especially when Cupid forced me to confess to Jason Grace about my feelings for Percy." Jadon's head was reeling. Just how much crap had Nico been through? It was then that Nico glanced up from the water, dark eyes meeting Jadon's. He gasped at the sheer amount of happiness in Nico's gaze. When he had first seen the boy, he had thought that he was one of those sullen types, the kind that hardly ever expressed emotions.

But now the boy looked radiantly happy, and Jadon had the distinct impression that Will mirrored the son of Hades.

"But then me and Will fought together in the final battle. He even patched me up afterwards, forced me to have some bed rest. And after a while I found that my feelings for Percy had changed. Maybe I had never actually loved him like that. Maybe I just felt puppy love for the person woho saved my life and introduced me to my true destiny. Water isn't really my type. Sunshine is." Jadon almost felt like an intruder as Will smiled softly at Nico from his other side.

"You see, Jadon, although you may feel like you'll never move on from Leo, maybe your feelings have already changed without you realising it. Or maybe you just need to find the person who is actually right for you." These words took a few moments to digest, and then Jadon was lost, gazing into the watery depths as he considered Will and Nico's words.

Could his feelings for Leo really have changed without him realising it?

He thought back to when they were children. At first he had hated Leo for being the little star of the gang. Then, when his sabotage attempt had really hurt the younger boy, he had been pathetically grateful to Leo for not throwing him under the bus with the leaders.

As time had passed, Jadon had become somewhat of a caretaker for the young Latino. Always patching him up.

And then Jadon realised that he liked boys **that** way, and he started noticing other things about Leo. Things like how his smile was adorable, his hair cutely ruffled and his eyes warm and soothing.

Jadon was certain that he had had a crush on his friend at that point. But did he still have those feelings for Leo?

When they had been in that hotel, and Leo had offered to share his bed with Jadon, he had protested instantly, scared that his being gay might make him take advantage of the younger boy in some way.

But, at some point in the middle of the night, Jadon had woken up to find Leo virtually draped over him. And instead of feeling awkward and flustered like one should feel when in such a compromising position with their crush, Jadon had just felt ... content.

Maybe what he had felt for Leo had just been 'puppy love' like what Nico had felt for Percy.

His eyes finally drifted from the water, feeling a little bit more sure of himself than he had been before. He wasn't completely certain of his feelings just yet, but he now felt more confident in facing Leo. He was sure that he would figure it all out soon, and he had a feeling that the conclusion would confirm that he didn't want his relationship with Leo to be romantic.

Will and Nico were staring at him, worriedly waiting for the results of his introspection. His face was overtaken by a smile.

"Thanks." That one word was enough to tell the other boys that Jadon's dilemma was no longer a massively worrying topic.

"Come on then, little brother. We best get you back to Leo before he and the rest of the seven tear the camp apart looking for you." Jadon tried to submerge his guilt for making Leo and the others worry. But even with this guilt, the smile on his face never left.

His future had looked pretty bleak after Leo had left the gang, and now he had a whole new life ahead of him.

Leo's P.O.V

Leo wasn't sure whether he wanted to laugh or cry when Jadon appeared sheepishly with Nico and Will.

The seven (plus Calypso after Leo had explained what was going on to her) had been searching for Jadon since he had disappeared into the forest. They had found no trace of the recently claimed son of Apollo, and Leo was terrified that the older demigod had found a way to leave the camp without them noticing.

But all hopes of even pretending to be angry vanished as Leo remembered what exactly had occurred to make Jadon run away in the first place.

He opened his mouth to apologise, but he was hampered by a hand being placed over his mouth and a pair of lips grazing his forehead.

"I'm sorry as well. I shouldn't have over reacted and ran away. But I think that I can work through this. Maybe my feelings for you have changed." Leo was gobsmacked as Jadon then sauntered towards the Big House, casually asking the rest of the seven (who were currently doing their best impressions of what Leo imagined Medusa's statues must have looked like, completely bewildered) about who this 'Chiron', and why he had to meet up with him.

When the blond got no reply, he span round, smirking at the surprised looks, and the approval on Will and Nico's faces. Then his face melted into a more serious expression.

"Oh, and my new, big brother was just telling me about your lack of self preservation and inability to look after yourself." Leo's glare that was intended to melt Will on the spot was simply shrugged off by the Apollo cabins head counsellor. Leo then realised that the Apollo kids now had an ally who could, and would, force Leo into medical for ever cut, scrape and bruise. He was sunk.

"Lets see if we can remedy that now that I'm here. I'm going to make sure that you take care of yourself." This was met by an embarrassing round of applause from everybody else, even Nico and Calypso joined in, the traitors.

He was about to complain, when he noticed the glimmer in Jadon's eyes. The older boy had already been at his best when he had someone to take care of. And if it would help him ease into this new life, then Leo would just have to take his advice and not be so reckless.

He looped his arms around Jadon's shoulders, hugging him fondly.

"I'm still going to refuse not being able to work for more than two days." Well, he couldn't follow all of the Apollo kid's advice. Wouldn't want them getting to comfortable, now would he.

* * *

So here is the final Jadon chapter. I quite enjoyed writing this one, so I hope that you get a similar joy from reading it. I'll see you all soon for the next reunion. Bye.


	11. Chapter 11

Ah, college is really the bane of my existence right now (and not my Magnus Bane, TMI fans). I hate having to do stupid UCAS. But, that's enough of my moaning. I hope that you enjoy the chapter, and thank you for all of the faves and follows last chapter. Oh, and a late happy holidays/new year to all who celebrate, and a quick warning that there is a tiny reference of under aging drinking that is seriously small but I thought I'd warn you anyway. There is also some incredible stupidity and mildly offensive language. Not my opinions, but they are a part of a character. This will be another double chapter by the way. I seem to be doing a lot of them latley…

Skyfir3S4kur4 : *Best discovery channel voice* And that sound that you can hear in the distance is not in fact a dinosaur or the new Jurassic Park, it is in fact a wild fangirl. Much more deadly than a dinosaur. I'm glad that you enjoyed the chapter, I really enjoyed writing. And I don't think that I'm amazing, after all, I wouldn't be anywhere without awesome people like reading my headcannons. And don't never apologize for fangirling, faniction was made for extreme fangirling. Let it all out.

ObsessedwReading : I loved writing this chapter because I love the idea of Will and Nico being role models for any camper who is unsure of their sexuality, or who is having problems due to their for feelings for someone who they are unlikely to end dating for any reason.

Neon Wish Likes Pine Trees : I'll take it that you enjoyed it then? :)

Melancholy's Sunshine : Ah, I feel like this entire story is going to turn into a Jadon story with all the cute headcannons you give me! But Leo would totally be over protective of Jadon. I can imagine him sneaking into people's cabins at night and waking them up while covered in flames to warn them about breaking Jadon's heart.

Alvin 6299 : Thank you, I hope that you like this chapter as well.

LONG LIVE BOOKS : I will definitely be complying (even if it takes me a while to do so).

Zoethezany III : I don't have an exact character for him, but I was thinking maybe a Hermes kid would be a good match, someone cheeky and playful like Leo but much less stubborn and more willing to let him help them out. Jadon already has to deal with one brat constantly escaping from the infirmary, I think he's need someone willing to let him take care of them properly. Someone who wouldn't be completely scared away by Leo's protectiveness.

Sidda : I'm sorry that I'm late, college dragged me back kicking and screaming with its university applications and its coursework/mock exams. And purging of the feels is always necessary every once in a while, or even the most hardened of fangirls would fall to their power. And I would probably be caught kissing Leo, more than likely by Calypso who would try to murder me for kissing him. What about you? And I will be incredibly careful if I join the Hetalia fandom.

Connwaer Heap : Hopefully Jadon would be able to move on after a little while, especially with the seven, Nico and Will helping him.

Tonsoffandoms : Hehe, a wild OTP appeared. You used fangirl. It's supereffective.

Lady Aoi-chan : For being an anime fan? I just had to indulge myself and make people fans of anime, it's amazing and I feel like most of the seven could really get into it, though they'd all be watching different types.

MusicalGurl : Sure I can! But you may have to wait a little while as I have quite a few characters to work through. I hope that you don't mind waiting.

MakaylaCO : Here you go, another chapter. And I really liked writing the bonding last chapter, as soon as people asked for a chapter in Jadon's P.O.V I just had to get Will and Nico involved.

Disclaimer : If it was mine then I'd probably be able to stick to some sort of schedule. Probably. And I also don't own Ouran High or the delightful children.

* * *

If Piper wasn't Leo's unofficial big sister, he would seriously consider hating her.

For the first time in ages, Leo had been forced into a suit. His hair was slicked back and his shirt was freshly ironed. The only small acts of rebellion that he had managed were leaving the top two buttons of his shirt undone and not wearing a tie.

Piper and her dad had been invited to some big charity ball, and Piper had been given permission to drag two friends along to be tortured with her.

She had chosen to bring Leo and Jason, and hadn't taken Leo's emphatic "No!" for an answer. Thus, the monkey suit.

Piper had lovingly (read: threateningly) explained that she would be buying the two suits, and that both boys would be wearing them. No protesting permitted.

Leo's suit was the traditional black jacket and pants affair, paired with a red shirt. Jason was in a classic black and white Bond style outfit.

Piper looked absolutely stunning in a flowing white dress with a relatively modest slit up one leg and silver heels. She was even wearing make-up, and Leo had mocked her for it until she had turned round and replied that if he kept it up then katropis would be finding a new home in his side. And she threatened to take pictures of him to show her cabin, who would then use him as a dress up doll for at least two weeks.

Needless to say, Leo had shut up, but not after muttering that he was fully prepared for the apocalypse that was about to occur due to him being in a suit and Piper wearing make-up willingly.

At first it had been a bit intimidating to be in a limo with Piper's dad, it wasn't often that you got to enjoy a nice long limo ride with a celebrity, but Leo had dealt with being on a ship with the camp's equivalent of a celebrity couple and so they eventually all started talking.

And if he quietly asked if Mr McLean would send him some of Piper's baby pictures to use as blackmail to stop her from showing around the pictures of him in a suit, than that was simply insurance. The fact that Mr McLean had chuckled before taking Leo's email address and promising to find the best pictures to send over made him even more awesome and Leo would forever owe the man.

They pulled up to the grand house, and Leo suppressed his urge to laugh at the sheer terror on Jason's face.

Piper and her father got out elegantly, and Jason looked over at Leo in despair.

"Come on superman, you can handle a ball. Just stick close to Pipes and you'll be fine." But then he remembered one of the more... unpleasant parts of balls.

"And remember not to let what anyone says about you get you down." His tone was deadly serious, and Jason's eyes widened in confusion and surprise.

"What do you mean?" Leo was about to answer that you could find some real pieces of work at balls like these, when Piper's head popped back into the limo, fixing a glare on the two boys.

"You two best not be planning on just staying in this limo all evening?" Her tone was that special blend of sounding like a question but actually being an order that many girls seem to be proficient in.

"Oh no! You caught on to our devious plan." Leo winked and slid out of the limo. Jason followed him hesitantly.

As a group they walked up to the queue where a group of very famous, very rich people all stood waiting for their invitations to be accepted. Mr McLean didn't even have to wait in line; he simply swept past the crowd with the demigods following along like a trio of very fashionable ducklings.

The movie star produced an invitation from his jacket, but he didn't have to show it before they were being waved in by a very eager to please attendant. Though, Leo couldn't help but notice the strange glances that he and Jason were getting. Mentally sighing, his hands moved to his jacket pockets on instinct before he realised that Piper had confiscated all of his rubber bands, pipe cleaners, sheets of paper and basically anything that could be used to alleviate his boredom.

Leo was resigned to his fate; he knew what this evening would be like. But he couldn't help but feel a twinge of sympathy for Jason who had never been in a situation quite like this before.

Throw the boy a monster and he could (mostly) slay it with ease. But put him in a situation like this and he looked as if his worst nightmares were being realised.

They walked through the opulent hallway as staff flocked around them, offering to take their coats, telling them about how the event was in the main ballroom but there were also quiet sitting rooms set up for a more serious conversation and that they were - of course - allowed to look around the rest of the grounds.

Leo whispered to Jason that if they kissed their butts any more than they would have a permanent lip shaped mark there forever, causing Jason to splutter awkwardly and earning glares from most of the men and women around them.

Thankfully, they reached the ballroom before the staff could smother them with their pretences. And then Leo remembered that what came next was worse.

As they entered the humongous room, Leo felt a flush grace his cheeks as hundreds of hungry vulture eyes zoomed in on their little group. He was aware of Jason beside him shifting, and Piper slipping her hand into his confidently. She also sent Leo a reassuring smile as the whispering began.

He could imagine what the hushed conversations sounded like, and he was certain that most of them weren't nice.

Mr McLean turned to them with a slightly awkward expression, one hand coming up to rub the back of his neck. Piper rolled her eyes.

"We'll be fine, dad. Go socialise." Her dad gave her a grateful look as he moved away to greet a collection of people who all looked as if they had stepped out of a fashion magazine. Leo felt more out of place here than he had ever felt anywhere else in his life and, considering the amount of weird situation he had been in, that really said something.

It was easy for him to realise that he was getting the most strange looks, and he honestly couldn't blame the snooty celebrities for it.

Piper was incredibly famous, and stunning to boot. Jason, although not famous, was a very attractive boy and whilst holding hands with Piper he looked as if he could easily fit in with all of the snobbish posers in the room. Whereas Leo looked - in the words of Tamaki Suoh - like a commoner.

Piper led them over to the food table so that they could pick up some drinks, and hopefully (for Leo anyway) fade into the background.

It was as Leo deliberated over his choice of nibble, the black goop that more than likely cost more than everything that Leo owned or the sandwiches which seemed to only consist of lettuce and cucumber, when he heard her voice.

Ice filled his body. Clearly his face screamed his distress as Piper and Jason both eyed him worriedly.

"Dude, what's ..." Jason's question was cut off by an over dramatic wail that silenced all conversations throughout the entire room, which Leo would have given credit for if he wasn't so horrified to hear that voice screeching a name that he hadn't been labelled as in a long time.

"DELIGHT!" Leo span around and grabbed a glass of punch that he was near certain was alcoholic and downed it quickly, before spinning around in a manner reminiscent of a character in a horror film who was about to meet certain death.

Coming towards him, arms outstretched and tears welling up (but not spilling over as that would ruin her perfect make-up), was the rich witch in all her glittery glory.

Piper and Jason's eyes both widened.

"Is that the woman from your memory with Anwen?" Piper asked quietly. Leo nodded as he was engulfed in a cloud of overwhelming perfume and scratched as bracelet clad arms wrapped around him.

The rich witch's wailing had summoned a small crowd of people, including Mr McLean who was frowning at the shrieking socialite before him.

Leo also managed to glimpse the rich witch's brood behind her. Serenity, Hope, Liberty, Peace and another kid who seemed about nine and who Leo didn't know but he just assumed that this new girl had been adopted after Leo had fled.

After a moment or two of desperate flailing, Leo managed to pry the arms away from him. Dam, the woman had a strong grip.

Though, the moment that he had freed himself from the rich witch's grasp, Anwen flung herself at him.

"It's good to see you again, Lea dear." Her welsh accent was still just as strong as the last time that he had seen her. As if Anwen's actions had broken them out of a trance, Serenity, Liberty and Hope all joined in on a massive group hug.

"I didn't think we'd ever see you again." Hope, a small Japanese boy of twelve muttered as his arms laced around Leo's neck.

"I missed you so much Leo!" This was Serenity, a Spanish girl of fourteen who Leo had loved speaking with in Spanish.

As they all pulled away, the little girl that Leo had noticed before walked up awkwardly. She stuck her hand out calmly as the rich witch babbled on to her friends in the background about who Leo – sorry – Delight was.

"My name is Elizabeth-Jane. But my rich girl name is Dream." Leo shook the little English girl's hand with a slight smile at her obvious disapproval of the name that the rich witch had bestowed upon her.

In the background, Leo could still hear the rich witch and her friends babbling on.

"Oh Lucretia, I thought that you had lost the little Hispanic one?"

"Lucy, you didn't tell me that one of your lot is friends with Piper McLean."

"Lu-Lu! I thought that you had gotten Dream to replace Delight…"

Jason and Piper moved closer to him protectively, and Mr McLean also managed to make his way over.

"Leo, what's going on?" Before Leo had a chance to formulate any sort of reply, the rich witch pushed in front of him, batting her eyes at Piper's dad. Piper glanced at him and mimed gagging.

"Oh, Mr McLean! This child here is one of the children that I adopted a few years ago, but he somehow managed to run away from my mansion. I was so worried about him, and I had people searching for him night and day but they didn't find him for a very long time, I had started to believe that he might have been dead. I even started planning out a funeral for him; it was going to be such a stylish affair. But then the nice social worker called me up and told me that they had found him, but due to his unfortunate tendencies to run away from even my kind and welcoming home, they decided to relocate him. Oh, I have missed him every day since then, and I just know that my other darlings were worried sick about him." Leo was mildly impressed; she had said all of that without seeming to take a breath. Mr McLean, Jason, Piper and her other "darlings" were all staring at her as if she were crazy.

He couldn't help but lean in to his two best friends and whisper:

"I hope that the funeral you had for me was as stylish as the one that she was planning for me." They both turned their glares to him for a moment before going back to their attempts to fry the witch's face off with their eyes. He commended them, it took a lot for someone as stupid as Lucretia to realise that someone was disapproving of her.

"Well, the boy is now under care of the same camp that my daughter attends so he is perfectly safe. You don't have to worry anymore." Lucretia's blinked as her eyes grew in size in a decidedly fake way.

"But now that I have seen him again, I can just tell that the place he is staying at isn't good for someone with his… needs." I mean, just look at him! A boy with… problems like Leo's shouldn't not be allowed to be that scrawny and look that tired. Leo is a very special boy, and he clearly isn't being treated right wherever he is staying." Silence descended across the room as most people digested Lucretia's spiel. Leo was just stunned by the hypocrisy and the offensiveness of Lucretia's tirade.

"Now, now, Lucinda was it? The camp where Leo and my daughter stay is an excellent place ran by some amazing people. I truly believe that Leo is better of there than anywhere else." Point to Mr McLean for that false forgetting her name gag.

Leo spotted Lucretia's perfectly manicured nails digging into the soft skin of her palms.

"I assure you Tristan, we're friends now so I can call you Tristan now can't I? Anyway, I assure you that Delight will be better off with me." She reached out to grab Leo's arm, but he dodged sideways, almost knocking the snack table over and spilling drink on his shirt. Even though both his shirt and the drink were red, the stain was still clearly visible, and Leo assumed that his cheeks were much the same colour.

He could feel all eyes on him, judging him and laughing under their breath at the stupid orphan who had ran away from dear Lucretia.

Embarrassment flooded him, and then a cool hand slipped into his.

"Let's go." Anwen's unmistakeable accent filtered into Leo's ears as she bolted, pulling him along with her despite the white heels strapped onto her feet. He glanced behind to see Piper kicking off her heels to follow them, with Jason and the other delightful children also racing away from the astonished crowd.

Anwen's pale blue, knee-length dress flowed behind her as they tumbled out into the gardens and raced further and further away from the house with the others still tagging along behind.

Snippets of laughter reached his eras, and he realised with a start that they were his.

Eventually, they reached a circular area of plain grass surrounded by water with four bridges reaching out to keep it connected with the main garden.

They hurtled across the bridge and collapsed to the ground laughing. The others reached them one by one, with tiny Elizabeth-Jane straggling behind.

Finally they were all lying on the ground (even Piper who apparently didn't care about her dress), panting and giggling like a pile of puppies that had been playing madly.

That was when Anwen pushed him into the water. He surfaced, spluttering as the others laughed even harder at his bedraggled appearance, though Piper did roll her eyes, presumably at the complete wreckage that was his suit.

He hauled himself onto back onto the grass and yanked Anwen into a tight hug, making sure to drench her thoroughly.

They remained there, laughing and chatting for the rest of the evening, undisturbed by the adults.

However, when it was getting to be truly late, they made the unanimous decision to go back inside. By then, Leo's suit had dried off, and although he looked a little worse for wear, he was still mostly happy with how the day had gone.

He could have done without seeing the rich witch again, but seeing the others (and meeting Elizabeth-Jane) had been great.

They made their way back into the house, still chuckling and messing about. But when they got closer to the ballroom, Leo noticed that Mr McLean was standing outside of the room, pinching his nose as if he had a bad migraine, or a bad case of Lucretia babble pain.

As they approached Piper hesitantly called out to her father, who looked up and gave them a wan smile.

"What's wrong Mr McLean?" Jason wrapped an arm around Piper's shoulders as her father sighed deeply.

"She wants to try and get custody of you again, Leo."

* * *

And there is one of my famous cliffhangers ;) I hope that you enjoyed the chapter, and I'll see you next time for part two of the rich witch saga.


	12. Chapter 12

I know that my update schedule is still pretty messed up, but I have a lot of things going on right now, so I'm trying my best. I hope that you enjoy this, and thanks as always to those who have faved or followed.

Hi : I don't know where I've written that, but I don't remember doing so. I know Leo's mother was killed by Gaia, are you perhaps thinking of where I've written about an adoptive mother?

Calefe : I do so because I am evil, truly evil ;) And I'm glad that you think it's amazing despite my wicked cliffhangers.

DestinyWish10 : Here you go

Melancholy's Sunshine : Oh, you have so many great ideas, I hope you don't mind if I pinch a few! But yes, the battle for Leo will truly be an awesome one. Ballads will be sung, stories will be written and rich witches will be vanquished!

Leohotstuff : Thank you, I hope that you think the wait was worth it!

Neon Wish Likes Pine Trees : Thanks, and I seriously just imagined Jason and Piper (chibified) hugging Leo and batting away the rich witch with a broom while shouting "nopesies".

FuzzyElf24 : Thank you, I'm glad that you like it.

Connwaer Heap : Hehe, she's certainly going to try and get him. And whenever the rich witch adopted a new kid, she'd spend weeks dragging them all around different balls and galas to try and show what a good person she is for taking in so many children. So poor Leo has more experience than he'd like with these sorts of things.

MusicalGurl : I hope that it will be the rich witch you're stabbing, not me And I'm happy that you don't mind waiting, I'm so lucky that all of you reviewers are so patient!

Cheorkee rememberer gamer98 : Ah, the mist is truly useful! And that mental image of the demigods was quite terrifying.

Sidda : Do what ;) And I'm kind of scared to start Hetalia now, though I will eventually (when I have a bit more time). Most Leo fans would probably have to learn very quickly to fight off Piper and Calypso for kissing Leo under the mistletoe! I think that I would save Bianca or Zoe, but that's a really tough decision! I was going to say Leo's mum, but (and I know this is kind of cruel) Leo wouldn't be Leo if his past hadn't been the way it was. So, Zoe or Bianca probably.

MakaylaCO : She can do that (or at the very least she can try to). And here is the next update so you can see what happens next.

Lady Aoi-chan : I was very tempted to use that other word as part of her nickname, but I don't really like swearing so I refrained. Plus, you reviewers should never worry about being late, it means so much to me that you are here at all! I'm the one who's always late. And thank you so much for your consideration, I'm really lucky to have reviewers who are as lovely as you are!

PercabethOTP996 : Please don't die, the update's here, and I really don't want to be a murderer! Your pun made me laugh by the way, I don't know if I've ever really thought of amazhang.

A23 : Ah, I should be thanking you for reviewing, not the other way around. Thank you for taking the time to review (and for saying such nice things!). I'm never going to stop writing, especially when I have people like you cheering me on

Skyfir3S4kur4 : Teehee, cliffhangers are a great way to avoid being murdered as people want to find out what happens next. Fangirling is always acceptable by the way, I do it often enough (I go all out with the hand flapping and everything). And please never feel the need to apologise for being late, I'm really grateful that you take the time to review at all, and I should be the one apologising for lateness anyway. I'm glad that you liked it so much, and I hope that this chapter makes you just as happy.

Guest : That would be a fun solution! But you'll just have to see what actually happens…

Zoethezany III : I'm sorry, I do it because I am evil and I can't help it. But you get to find out what happens in this chapter.

That-Flying-Breadstick-Wizard : Heehee, don't worry, there is going to be a battle for Leo up ahead. And I will definitely be doing a chapter for Mrs Sparrow, but I don't know if it will be next. There are a few characters that have been requested so I'll see what I can do.

Guest : Thank you, and here is the update.

Guest : Aww, thank you! I'm honoured that my fics are your favourites, and I hope that you enjoy this chapter.

CrazyBlueOwl : Thank you for both of your reviews, and I'm happy that you like Jadon. I have a soft spot for him as well. And I appreciate the follow as well

OtakuNewWorldOrder : It's not often that I do pure cuteness so I'm glad that you liked it. And of course I can give you a brief summary, the rich witch is a young socialite (named Lucretia) who is very rich and decides to flaunt this richness by adopting orphans from around the world to try and look kind and charitable. In reality, she's incredibly shallow and only really cares about her status. Anwen is one of her adopted children and she helped Leo pose as a girl to run away.

Somethingbad123: But now I really want to ask! And thank you, though I don't think I'm quite on either of their levels yet, I really appreciate how much you seem to like my stories. And I'm sorry for taking so long to update this, I hope you enjoy it despite the wait.

Ninjacook123: And I am so glad that you chose to leave a review, my good sir. It makes me so happy to hear that you like my stories and that you think they're well written. And I love Leo-centric stories as well, that's why I'm writing so many of them! And I also appreciate your concern about how college is going, it's much better now (though I still have so little time to write:()

Disclaimer : I think by now that you've got the hint, I don't own HOH. Nor do I own the Avengers.

* * *

The car ride back to Piper's house (or should he say mansion?) was significantly more awkward than the car ride there had been. Leo was sort of in a daze, of all the horrific outcomes that he had predicted could happen today, this had funnily enough never occurred to him. That was probably why it had happened, because it was one of the only things he truly hadn't considered going wrong.

After Mr McLean had made his announcement, there had been a few moments of stunned silence before the cacophony of protests had begun. Leo himself had just sat, wordlessly trying to process what Mr McLean had just said.

Even now, after saying hasty goodbyes to the rich witch tribe and being hastily bundled into the limo, Leo still hadn't quite wrapped his head around the concept that the rich witch was actually trying to pull this stunt.

He knew that she was a selfish, self-absorbed overgrown brat that made Drew look like a soup kitchen volunteer, but of all the stupid publicity stunts she had pulled in the past, this really took the cake. This took the whole dam banquet for Hades' sake. Not that the rich would eat a banquet. Too many carbs. Too fattening. And Leo was rambling in his head about stupid expressions, he really needed to stop.

Jason and Piper were furiously discussing the legitimacy of the rich witch's claim with the movie star, but Leo was useless with legal stuff so he just decided to stay quiet.

"She can't really take Leo back, can she dad?" Piper sounded distraught, and her face twisted further into a frown as her father shifted somewhat uncomfortably.

"I don't know." The superstar finally admitted, agitatedly running a hand through his hair. Then he turned, eyes fixing upon Leo's own.

"But we will sort this out Leo. Don't worry, she won't take you away from camp if I can help it." His voice was so honest and filled with authority that Leo couldn't help but believe him.

"Thanks." He mumbled as his friends also flashed him reassuring grins.

They pulled up outside of the McLean's house, where they would all be staying for two nights before returning back to camp. Or they would hopefully be returning back to camp, if the rich witch claiming that she wanted to take Leo back in was just a silly whim she had to try and impress Tristan McLean.

Leo wouldn't deny the spiteful glee that he felt at the fact that Piper's dad clearly despised the simpering witch. After all she had put him through, Leo felt vindictively justified that her little crush on the actor would get nowhere.

They decided that they would forget about it for tonight, and that tomorrow Mr McLean would look into it and see if Lucretia had been serious.

After lounging around, gorging themselves on pizza and snacks whilst watching movies (Piper had almost taken his eye out with popcorn when he suggested Prince of Sparta, her dad had cackled at her expression before putting the Avengers on), they had all finally gone to bed at around midnight.

There were enough spare rooms to house most of the demigods from both camps, but Leo and Jason decided to share one of the rooms that had two beds anyway. They would have used sleeping bags to stay in Piper's room, but Mr McLean had drawn the line there.

He said that he trusted them all, but that was his one rule and there was no point trying to change his mind about it.

Leo spent the next hour telling Jason how he'd be able to make a real working Iron Man suit, one that the son of Zeus would be able to power up with awesome lightning abilities. Jason had sadly declined, but Leo was still tempted to have a go at creating the suit when he got back to the bunker.

Eventually they had fallen asleep, and Leo had some sweet dreams of flying around and fighting crime whilst shooting flames from an iron man suit.

Sadly, what he woke up to was not as fun as that dream.

Jason was shaking him awake, face deeply troubled.

"It seems like the press have caught wind of what's going on." Leo was going to make a wind related joke – hey, son of Jupiter in front of him – but then Jason's words hit him.

"Crap!" He yelped, rolling out of bed and racing over to the window. The bedroom they were staying in faced the front of the house, so you could see most of the entranceway by looking out of it.

Leo peeled the curtain back slightly, and peeked out from behind it. He could see up to the gates, and he could definitely see all of the press vans parked outside.

Jason was fully dressed, indicating that he had been up for a while, but Leo took no heed of this and ran out of the room to barrel down the corridor in just his red pyjama bottoms.

Mr McLean and Piper were in the living room when he burst through the door in all his bed hair glory. The movie star on his phone, and he didn't sound happy as he snapped to whoever was on the other end of the line that the press should not be at his home right now trying to get to a kid.

"Look, Leo is staying at a very prestigious camp that my own daughter attends- yes I know that he needs official documentation, if I can be given some time to contact the camp then I can get all of that sorted. Yes, I know that he disappeared from the Wilderness School along with my daughter and Jason Grace, but I'm sure that that was all cleared up." The actor was clearly frustrated, knuckles clenched tightly around his sleek smartphone.

"Yes, yes, you do that. And while you're at it, why don't you try and get some of those stupid paps away from my damn door!" Leo was a massive fan of new technology, but he was sure that if Mr McLean operated off of an old fashioned flip phone then that hang up would have been much more dramatic.

As it was, Mr McLean chucked the phone onto the sofa and buried his face in his hands.

It was then that Piper noticed him and Jason awkwardly hovering in the doorway.

"Leo!" The daughter of Aphrodite bounded up to him and quickly wrapped him into a protective hug.

"Don't worry, I'm sure that my dad can sort this out." The actor had walked over and placed his hand on Leo's head in a very fatherly manner, even ruffling his hair.

"I'm going to go and call your camp and see if they can help me get this all cleared up." The phone was retrieved from the sofa before the actor swept out of the room.

Leo glanced up at Jason who was still acting as a doorstop, so he noticed the slight widening of his eyes.

He still wasn't prepared to hear Nyssa's voice blaring out from behind him.

"Leo, what in the name of Hades is going on? Have you even seen the news?" Nyssa's form was encased in the flickering rainbow formed from an iris message. Surrounding her were Leo's other siblings. Harley's big eyes were watering as he clutched Jake's knees.

"Are you not coming home Leo?" That question honestly broke the fire-wielders heart when paired with the misery and confusion encasing the faces of all of his siblings.

"No, but I can guess what it's showing. I honestly don't know what's going to happen though." His older sister's face creased even further into concern and anger. A smudge of oil graced her left cheekbone, and when she scrunched up her face it crinkled amusingly. Leo was too exhausted to point it out. For one moment, he wished that he had never found a way to shield tech from monsters, if he hadn't then his siblings wouldn't have had a telly to find this out from.

"What do you need us to do?" Leo hadn't been expecting that, he knew they'd be worried about hi, but he didn't think that they would be able to do anything to help.

"There isn't anything you can do, is there?" A wicked grin formed on all of his sibling's faces, even little Harley's. Leo remembered that when he had first been introduced to his cabin mates, to his siblings, he had thought that no one would ever realise that they were all related. With that devious smirk (one that he was quite intimate with, seeing it on his own face daily), it would be difficult to deny that they were all related in some way.

"Oh, we can do plenty. None of it might be legal, but we can certainly do a lot. After all, we are all master craftsmen. We could cook up a little something to warn this harpy to stay away from our favourite little pyromaniac."

"Aw shucks, I bet you say that to all of your pyromaniac friends." Nyssa forged on despite his interjection.

"Plus, pretty much every cabin will do whatever we want if we offer to make them things. Travis and Connor alone could dig up enough blackmail to have that stupid witch leave you alone forever if we made them some lightsabers. It could be a competition, which ever cabin gets rid of her the fastest gets whatever tech they want." The unholy gleam in his big sister's eyes really made him doubt whether or not his siblings were actually planning to sell their crafting services in exchange for deposing of Lucretia.

"That probably wouldn't end well… there would be a huge press scandal, it would be a nightmare to deal with." Nyssa exchanged a serious look with Jake, and Leo felt his heart sink.

"It kind of already is a press scandal Leo. We already told you that it's on the news. The bimbo's appealing to everyone, and the media is lapping it up." Leo groaned, and suddenly the message started fading.

"Ah, we have to go! But if you need us Leo, for anything, you know how to contact us. We'll be keeping an eye on the news for you." The trio waved as the Hephaestus cabin shimmered out of view.

Leo groaned and face planted onto the sofa.

"Well this is going to be fun." He mumbled into the sofa cushions.

He heard the door open and twisted around to face Mr McLean as he walked back into the room.

"Your camp director has offered to send a representative to talk this through with us. I don't know when they'll be arriving though, so I'm going to listen out for when they call me back to tell me that this representative has arrived. I need to head out so I'm leaving you to entertain yourselves. I assume that you guys can make yourself dinner, ordering in probably wouldn't go so well at the moment." They all nodded their affirmative, and Mr McLean flashed them a smile, pulling his daughter in for a quick hug before heading off to whatever appointment he had to attend.

"So what do you guys want to do?" Jason inquired. Before Piper could even open her mouth, Leo hauled himself up off of the plush sofa.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm going back to bed. I've had enough of psycho ladies messing with my life, so I'm just going to go and chill in dream land for a bit." He shuffled to the door, but Piper halted him with a cool hand on his wrist.

"That isn't exactly a healthy way to cope with this situation, Leo."

"Yeah, well it's better than me just running away and never coming back, isn't it?" His best friends looked stricken, and Leo let out a long sigh.

"I'm not going to run. Who would maintain Festus without me? Who would lovingly place mechanical spiders in the Athena cabin? I just want to sleep. I really can't deal with this right now. Piper hesitated for a moment, before releasing his wrist.

"Go have your nap then, Repair boy." He mock saluted the couple before exiting the room.

As soon as he reached the bed that was his whilst he and Jason were sleeping over, Leo collapsed into it. He felt exhausted, and hoped that he'd drop off to sleep easily.

The Fates were apparently on his side for once, as his vision began going dark pretty much as soon as his head hit the pillow.

They did have the last laugh though, as Leo found himself face to face with the overwhelming vision of ugly awkwardness that was his father.

"Holy…" Leo leapt backwards as his father observed him.

"As a God, I suppose I could be considered holy…" Leo felt his mouth hang open.

"Did you just make a joke?" He spluttered as Hephaestus began fiddling with a small animatronic figure that looked suspiciously like a monster version of Lucretia. Not that there was much difference between the monster figure and the real Lucretia. He thought that the long nails were an especially nice touch.

As Hephaestus was choosing to ignore Leo's question about the sudden appearance of a sense of humour in his father, Leo elected to take another line of questioning.

"Why are you using this to talk to me again? The God sighed, running a hand over his disfigured face.

"The Gods are aware of the legal troubles that you are currently encountering. They have, um, decided to send aid." Now Leo was pretty certain that he would never be able to lift his jaw off of the floor. He'd never be able to eat again, forever known as 'jawless Leo', the demigod whose jaw was permanently attached to the floor of Hephaestus' workshop due to the Gods actually deciding to be helpful for once, especially in a matter such as this which they would usually deem to be too trivial.

"What?" Was the only thing that he managed to choke out.

"As a hero of Olympus, it is best if you are able to stay at camp as much as possible. That wouldn't be possible if you were staying with that pathetic mortal wench." As much as Leo wanted to focus on the fact that Hephaestus had literally just called someone a wench, something still didn't add up.

"The others don't all stay in camp all of the time, and you aren't all intervening over that." Hephaestus scratched his face anxiously, and Leo realised with a start that Hephaestus was probably the one who had got the Gods to agree to help out. His father could be pretty cunning when he wanted to be.

"That doesn't matter right now. The aid that is coming to you will be…" Suddenly, just like the first time that his father had contacted him, the image was replaced with some sort of Godly gameshow. There seemed to be some sort of tally being made about how many mortals the Gods had messed with this week. The board was bigger than Piper's mansion, and Aphrodite was unsurprisingly the Goddess with the most names, though Cupid came close second.

The image flickered back to the workshop and his frowning father.

"Now Zeus is just being petty." He mumbled before noticing Leo again.

"Good luck, boy. And I'll see you when you wake up." Leo was about to ask what exactly the God meant by that, when he found himself being frantically shaken awake by his friends.

"Wassup?" He slurred sleepily, and Jason yanked him out of bed.

"Get ready, quick. The representatives from camp have arrived." The son of Jupiter ordered before he and Piper left him alone to presumably carry out this order.

Leo yawned and got ready as quickly as he could manage whilst still recovering from that rare interaction with his socially awkward father. Piper and Jason were waiting outside of the room for him, and they virtually dragged him to the sitting room.

When he saw who had been sent, Leo almost had an unfortunate repeat of his humiliating gaping from before.

There, perched on Mr McLean's fancy couch (with the star himself standing to the side looking confused) were his father and Hermes, both in smart suits. Hephaestus looked as if he wanted to sink into the sofa and quite possibly never return from it. Hermes appeared confident and calm, radiating assurance in a way that only a God could manage.

The messenger God winked at him.

"Hello Leo. My name is Angel and I'll be your lawyer for this case." A hand was extended in his direction, but Leo ignored it in favour of pointing at Hephaestus.

"What are you doing here?" He croaked out, as Hermes pouted whilst rescinding his hand.

"Well, if possible, I'm here to take custody of you as your father, or at least help you out." That was when Leo decided that he must still be dreaming, and chose to pinch himself to wake up from whatever this bizarre dream was.

Sadly, the red mark on his arm had the opposite effect. He wondered if alternate reality was actually an option.

* * *

As I said, I'm really sorry about the delay on all of my stories. This year is really important for college work and I need to do well to get into my uni choice. Thank you all for being patient, and I'll see you next time.


	13. Chapter 13

Ah, this chapter has been really difficult to write! I don't really know too much about legal stuff (especially the legal system) so please take what you read with a grain of salt. Plus, I am finally finished with college so hopefully updates will be more regular now. Thank you to everyone who faved or followed, and I hope that you enjoy the chapter.

Skyfir3S4kur4 : Heehee, I'm glad that you rant about your feels in reviews, it never fails to make me smile. I hate her as well (even though she is my character...). And I'm like with some of the stories that I read, so I'm glad to hear that you are so happy when it's updated. Thank you so much for your patience and consideration, and I will definitely keep writing (though hopefully more frequently now).

Elephantlover123 : Thank you, not just for your comments about the story but also for wishing me well in college. I'm sorry though that this update isn't very soon...

CrazyBlueOwl : Thanks, I'm happy to hear that you think my story is cool. And thank you for wishing me well with my college work :)

Melancholy's Sunshine : I now seriously can't stop imagining Hera in her crone form hitting the rich witch over the head with a handbag like the bad kitty lady in Madagascar :) And even if Nemesis doesn't get involved, the rich witch will definitely be put in her place this chapter. I'm glad that you liked my little pun, and I hope this chapter is as enjoyable as you think it will be.

Neon Wish Likes Pine Trees : I think Hermes especially will be verbally slapping her, though with Hephaestus discovering his sense of humour, who knows how this will turn out (oh wait, I do...)

Connwaer Heap : Thank you :) I seem to have put you on a real emotional roller coaster, making you laugh and then making you sad. But hey. if it cheers you up any, Leo's probably catching up with all the sleep he loses whilst inventing, so this new coping method is helpful in at least one way!

Sidda : Please don't feel like you need to apologise for being late to review. Seriously, I'm lucky that you review at all, and I'm the one who needs to apologise for being late. I hope that you insomnia wears off (I'm usually the other way around, going asleep at random hours instead of waking up at random hours). I also hope that your sister is being less of a brat now :) Leo could definitely build an iron man suit. And I don't know who I would use the Death not on, probably one of my primary school friends. She was kind of our little group's leader and she wasn't very nice.

A23 : Thank you, your review is so kind! I'm sorry that you've probably had to miss my work for even longer seeing as I haven't updated in ages :( Though I really appreciate you saying that I have talent. And I could never accept money for my Fanfiction seeing as it's always late and some chapters aren't as good as they could be. And I will keep writing for years to come, so feel free to stick around if you want to ;)

ZoethezanyIII : Hello again! I really hope the suspense hasn't actually killed you (seeing as I left you waiting for so long...)

Guest : I'm loving the pun :) And I'm happy to hear that you like my stories, even if you seem a little annoyed at the cliffhanger.

Mondmaedchen : I really liked that line, it's one of my favourites for this chapter so I'm glad that it made you laugh.

Ninjacook123 : Thank you, and I hope that the end of this section doesn't disappoint. I think that I will be doing Teresa next, that's who I'm planning to do anyway. And no, I haven't yet because I'm waiting for my sister to lend it to me :( And I have been really busy with college lately, but I'm done now so I'm feeling great and I'm ready to write, so thank you for asking! I hope everything is good with you to. And I really appreciate your willingness to wait. Plus, I love replying to reviews as you take the time out of your day to leave me such wonderful messages so it's only fair that I reply.

Dez : Thank you, and I will continue no matter how long it may take me (though hopefully that time will be reduced now that I have finished college).

Disclaimer : I could never hope to own these characters (except for my OCs). I also don't own any of the memes.

* * *

Whilst Leo subtly checked the room for discrepancies (besides the two Gods sitting on the sofa) in case this really was an alternate universe, Mr McLean decided to fulfil his duties as a host and offered to fetch drinks.

Hermes declined politely, whereas Hephaestus asked for a coffee with no milk. Leo couldn't help but wonder if Gods could get caffeine rushes, and how hilarious it would be if they could. One particular image of the Gods all literally bouncing off of walls had Leo stifling chuckles. Now probably wouldn't be a good time to laugh like a crazy person as he didn't think that the two Gods in front of him would appreciate such musings.

"So... how are you going to be helping me exactly?" Leo questioned. Hermes previous, easy-going smile instantly transformed into a more serious look.

"Well, as of now the matter hasn't actually reached a legal standpoint, despite its current publicity. The best way to deal with this would be to reach out to Lucretia now and make her understand that dropping this matter would be... prudent, shall we say ." That made a lot of sense to Leo, but didn't really coincide with what Hephaestus had said earlier.

"But didn't you say that you wanted to take custody of me?" He directed this towards his still uncomfortable looking father, yet it was Hermes who interjected smoothly.

"Oh, don't worry about that, I'm already working on sorting that out." Leo wasn't really sure how to take that, and his face must have shown his uncertainty as Hephaestus spoke up.

"Hermes has already gathered all of the evidence needed to allow me to take custody of you, he just needs to submit it. A little persuasion should quietly convince the courts to sign custody over to me without the need of any public spectacle." Leo had no doubt that "persuasion" really meant that Hermes would be using his Godly magic to influence the courts. Though that part of the statement didn't really bother him.

"What evidence?" The God of the forge hadn't exactly been the type of father who attended school plays or taught him to ride a bike or anything, and Leo had gotten over that, but it didn't exactly show a stellar parental record that Leo hadn't met his father until he was sixteen.

Surprisingly, his father's cheeks began to redden, and a Cheshire grin grew on Hermes' face.

"Oh, your father has been paying child support for all of his children ever since they were born." Leo's attention instantly snapped towards his father, as did his friend's.

"How? Why? How?" Leo spluttered.

"Some of my inventions tend to sell well in this world. I simply had to keep payments up." Hermes elbowed him.

"Actually, you got _me_ to take care of the legal stuff, you just made the money." Hephaestus grumbled back that dealing with organic beings was troublesome. Leo tried not to take that as an offence as he often though the same thing.

"Anyway, I'll just call this Lucretia now and organise a meeting in, say, twenty minutes. That should give her enough time to organise herself, nut not enough time to be truly prepared for our visit." Hermes whipped out his sleek phone and tapped in Lucretia's number.

"Hello, is this Lucretia Narcissa? fabulous, you see, my name is Angel and I am the lawyer of a certain Mr Leo Valdez. Through your very overt use of social media I have been made aware of the claims that you have made bout wishing to take my client back in. I would very much like to meet with you along with the boy and his father." At this point, Leo could faintly hear Lucretia choke out the word "father" in a completely disbelieving tone of voice. Hermes smile turned sharp.

"Yes, actually, Leo's father is a close associate of mine. So, we will be meeting up in twenty minutes to discuss this matter with you." The rich witch began spluttering excuses, that she couldn't possibly meet up with them at short notice, she had very urgent business you attend to and she couldn't put it on hold .

"Oh, I'm afraid that wasn't really a request, Lucretia dear. You see, me and my associate are very busy men ourselves, and we wanted to get this matter sorted out as quickly as possible. Yet, if you are determined to prolong this experience in order to get more publicity for yourself, then I am sure that the media would just love to hear about your affair with a married man." Leo could practically feel the frost emanating over the phone as Piper gasped. Hermes sent the daughter of Aphrodite a wink, and Hephaestus murmured that Piper's mother had looked into the matter after Hephaestus had caught her on yet another date with Ares. Piper looked part thankful that her mother was helping, part ashamed that her mother was still fooling around with Ares whilst married.

"ARE YOU THREATENING ME?!" This charming wail was audible to everyone in the room, and Hermes face crinkled in distaste as his ears were directly assaulted by a sound that was akin to a very rusty gate being opened rapidly.

"Not at all, that would imply that I am only _thinking_ of mentioning this knowledge to the press, whereas I am in actual fact stating that this will happen if you do not meet with us in..." Here, Hermes paused to take a look at his expensive watch, "Sixteen minutes."

"I WILL CALL MY LAWYER!"

"On now, Lucretia dear, you don't want to do that. Or I might accidentally let slip about a certain offshore account..." Hermes trailed off very deliberately, and for a minute or two all was silent.

And then the God of messengers beamed.

"I'm glad that you are seeing thing my way. We'll be there in thirteen." Hermes tapped to end the call, and everyone in the room stared at him in awe.

"Now that," He stated calmly "Was fun."

"That was awesome!" Leo enthused. The other demigods nodded and Hermes laughed it off, just as Mr McLean returned, looking a little baffled.

He handed Hephaestus his coffee after apologising for the delay. Apparently the coffee machine had broke down twice before working flawlessly.

Hephaestus sipped his coffee and ignore the pointed glare that Leo shot his way.

Hermes waltzed over and shook the movie star's hand.

"Thank you for letting us into your wonderful home Mr McLean. Harry, Leo and I will be going now. Goodbye Piper, Jason." Hermes waved casually, and Leo followed dazedly, also turning to wave at his friends as they called good luck to him. Hephaestus knocked back his coffee before catching up.

From behind the door, Leo could just make out Piper's dad asking what had just happened, and if that man had just chugged steaming hot coffee as if it were a milkshake.

Leo snickered, and then remembered what Hermes had called Hephaestus.

"Harry, seriously? One of the most common names ever." Hephaestus actually shrugged.

"I thought it was quite... magical." Leo didn't think he would ever get used to his father actually having a sense of humour. Hermes was also snickering, and then Leo noticed that something was missing from the God's image (could this possibly prove his alternate reality theory?).

"Aren't you meant to carry round a staff?" He was pretty certain that Annabeth had said something about a staff called a caddy, cadmium, cad something, that Hermes always dragged around.

"Oh, yeah. Martha and George were fighting again so I'm putting them in time out. They're are acting as my phone for now." At that, the Macarena began blurring out of the God's pocket, and he frowned and mumbled that he thought he'd put that on silent.

"You have the Macarena as a ringtone?"

"Why not?" Leo really couldn't think of how to explain just how weird that was, and so he simply shook his head. That was when a certain hitch in their plan occurred to him.

"How are we going to get past the reporters?" Hermes pearly whites flashed at him.

"By being invisible of course!" Leo grumbled at that as they exited the mansion. As they crossed the gravel driveway, Hermes explained that the mist was covering them and that the paparazzi wouldn't realise that they had gone past at all.

It worked and they successfully snuck past the stupid leeches camped outside off the imposing gates.

Leo was then confronted with one of the sweetest rides that he had ever seen.

A black limo with flame decal, shining in the sun and Leo was almost salivating as the engine called out to him from underneath the bonnet.

Hephaestus smiled at his expression (well, Leo thought it was a smile, it could also be that Hephaestus was holding in a sneeze as the look could pretty much be either).

"That is one hot ride." Leo purred, and Hermes nodded. Hephaestus kind of looked bashful at the compliments to the limo.

"It isn't exactly a ride that could pull the sun, but I am happy with it." Leo agreed. As they piled into the limo, Leo didn't even question how they were going to make it to Lucretia's in the ten or so minutes that they had left of Hermes deadline.

This machine was made by his father, it was obviously going to be a speed machine.

And Leo was right, what followed was one of the most harrowing, yet exhilarating experiences of his life as they raced through streets and (at some points) the air.

They reached Lucretia's self indulgent manor with two minutes to spare.

Leo was impressed. Very impressed.

They clambered out (or, Leo clambered out and Hermes gracefully exited and Hephaestus jerkily almost fell out) and Hermes rang through using the bell by the gate. They were granted permission to enter by one of Lucretia's many house staff, and they strolled in with Hermes in the lead.

The trio were informed by yet another employee that Lucretia was waiting for them in the conservatory.

The walk through the mansion had Leo remembering his time here as a child.

Sliding down the banisters with Anwen, babbling away in Spanish with Serenity, playing pretend games with Hope and cuddling up to Liberty after they had had a nightmare.

Even if he hadn't missed the rich witch, or the stupid, fanciful lifestyle, he had pined for his the others.

Speaking of the others, he spotted them up on the first floor, waving at him and giving him thumbs up. Anwen especially was waving like a maniac.

He gave them a thumbs up as well, to show that he was all right.

Then they reached the conservatory, and Leo talk a deep breath before entering the witch's lair.

Lucretia was perched on one of the many chairs in the conservatory, in front of her least favourite table (Leo internally chortled at the intentional slight), smile glacial. Hermes bounded into the room, and Hephaestus slunk in behind him.

As Hermes reached the iceberg, he stuck his hand out professionally, and smiled winningly. Although his charms only thawed the ice queen slightly, he at least got a formal handshake from the rich witch.

Leo joined them at the table and, after a moment of hesitation, Hephaestus came as well.

Leo watched as Lucretia's eyes coloured with distaste, and found himself irrationally defensive. He knew that his father wasn't exactly a model (to put it lightly) but Lucretia had no right to look at him like that when he was actually a decent pers... and now Leo was defending his father. Alternate reality confirmed.

The messenger God got straight to business.

"You are going to give up this ridiculous notion of taking Leo back." Lucretia snorted, but leo could tell that she was shaken, not just from the conversation earlier but also from Hermes' no nonsense demeanour. As a somewhat attractive, very wealthy woman, Lucretia was used to commanding respect and being fawned over. She was definitely out of her element here.

"Why are you so invested in taking him in now?" Her voice could have caused frost on Grecian fire. Hephaestus looked her directly in the eyes, a rarity for the rather introverted God.

"I could ask the same of you." He retorted coolly. Lucretia scrambled for a response to that, as Hermes whispered "ooh, burn".

"If it's about Mr McLean, I can tell you now, he's not interested." Leo stated, a smidge gleefully. Lucretia whirled on him.

"What would you know of love you stupid wretch? Your father didn't care enough to take you in when you were little. No one loves you!" Leo reeled back from that. He knew that it wasn't true, his friends and siblings and Calypso all loved him, but the remark touched a little too close to his old fears that he was unlovable.

That was when Hephaestus rose, his presence instantly becoming darker and more domineering.

"Never speak to my son like that again you pathetic quisquilian* peasant! I could not take him in due to the nature of my job, yet right this very moment papers are being sorted to legally bind us. Now don't presume to know about my son and whether he is loved or not!" Lucretia cowered in her seat, and Hermes looked torn between being impressed by the other God's uncharacteristic outburst, or amused by the whole situation.

Leo was conflicted, but the warmth in his heart could not be denied. His father had essentially said that if it wasn't for the fact that he was a God, he really would have been more involved in Leo's life.

"I-I..." Lucretia stuttered before Hephaestus' enraged voice overrode hers.

"If that is not a promise that you will drop this matter at once, and formally state this on all of your stupid websites then I am going to be very angry."

"Very angry!" Leo had to chime in.

"But-but..." The rich witch trailed off, and Hephaestus sighed, before leaning forwards slightly.

"But nothing! Your measly fifteen minutes of fame are over. I will no longer tolerate you exploiting my son for your own benefit. I would also suggest taking better care of your other charges. My son is fond of them, and I expect them to be happy. Understand?" Lucretia finally nodded meekly, curling up into herself and looking so pathetic that Leo felt some small ounce of pity for her. His eyes travelled to the two Gods, to the triumphant glee and wrath in their eyes, and realised with a start that he was the only one feeling sorry for her.

He shouldn't really be surprised by this, they were higher beings after all. Even if they were becoming more involved with their children, they were still above humanity.

Now it was Leo's turn to sigh.

"I think she gets it." The Gods turned to him and nodded. They departed then, silently, and Leo glanced back as they lest.

Lucretia was snivelling in her chair, shoulders quivering and arms wrapped around her knees.

Leo ran a hand through his hair.

"Lucretia." Her watery eyes latched onto his.

"You aren't the worst person I've met, even if you are pretty self absorbed and conceited. Just... just try to actually get to know some of the kids you've taken in. Who knows, you might even enjoy looking after them"

With that last piece of advice, Leo left the room. The two Gods were waiting for him in the hallway. Both appeared a little confused, but Leo didn't feel up to explaining what he had done.

It was at that moment the others came racing down the stairs.

Hephaestus told him that they'd wait in the car, and it was such a dad thing to say that Leo secretly added it to his "this is an alternate universe" checklist.

Anwen reached him first and near bowled him over with the force of her hug. The others finished the job for her, knocking both teens over and causing them all to sprawl out on the floor in a mildly uncomfortable heap.

"I take it that you're not coming back to live with us then" Leo glanced at Serenity questioningly, and she giggled.

"You wouldn't be smiling if you were." They all joined in with her laughter as they resituated themselves so that they were all touching Leo in some way, but they weren't all tangled together.

Hope was draped over his shoulders, leaning on him gently. Anwen's hand was in his hair, carding through it comfortably just like she used to when Leo had had a nightmare. The girl had some sort of freaky nightmare sensor, almost always knowing when one of the had woken up from a bad dream. Liberty's head was pillowed in his lap, her dyed purple hair spread out in a fan around her head. Serenity was leaning up against his shoulder, somehow managing to avoid Hope's arms.

Finally, Dream's hand rested tentatively on his knee, as if doubting whether or not she should be included in this moment.

Leo sent her a reassuring look, and her worried look relaxed as she scooted closer.

"I missed you guys." A chorus of voices echoed that sentiment, and Leo nestled closer to his siblings. Because they were siblings, just like his cabin mates. Even if they weren't connected by blood.

"And you are going to keep in contact this time mister." Anwen wagged her free hand in his face faux menacingly, almost taking out Serenity's eye as she did though.

This lead to a few minutes of immature pushing and shoving until they were all laughing to hard to continue.

"I promise that I will." Leo eventually wheezed out. Anwen nodded approvingly.

Their attention was diverted by a hesitant cough from behind them.

Lucretia stood near the door of her conservatory, tugging on her sleeves in a way that made her look years younger, puffy eyes only adding to this effect.

"If... if you would like to choose a movie, I suppose we could watch it together this evening." They all gaped at her. Leo had truly hoped that she would take his words to heart, but this turnabout was a lot sooner than expected. Everyone just remained static for a moment or two, and Lucretia's expression fell ever so slightly.

"I, erm, understand if you don't want to." Her gaze drifted away from the group, and Leo nudged the all and mouthed "she's trying". Shockingly, Anwen was the first to take this olive branch.

"I'm up for watching the Lion King." She offered. Lucretia turned back to them, and there was a small spark of hope in her eyes.

As the others started arguing, Leo slipped away to join Hephaestus and Hermes in the car.

He entered on the tail end of a conversation it seemed, and neither God noticed him at first.

"Zeus and Hera are probably still annoyed at you for trapping them both, again." Hermes pointed out, and it suddenly dawned on Leo how exactly his father had convinced the other Gods to let him intervene.

"You trapped them again to help me?" He blurted out with thinking. Such a butch, hairy man shouldn't be able to resemble a deer in the headlights so much, but somehow Hephaestus managed it.

"Umm, the forge is calling me!" The fire God disappeared and Leo gaped at the spot that he had previously occupied.

"Did he just..."

"Yup." Hermes seemed completely okay with that awkward departure, so Leo decided to just ignore his father's weird ways.

The limo cruised in mildly comfortable silence. For about five seconds. And then Hermes remembered that he had left his phone on silent and got straight back to work.

It pulled up outside of Piper's mansion in a handful of minutes. Just before Leo left, Hermes glanced at him with a smirk.

"Your father's limo may not pull the sun, but it serves nice popcorn." He chucked a bag to Leo, and Leo climbed out. The limo disappeared as Leo tried to decide if Hermes was implying that even though Hephaestus wasn't brilliant at being a father, he did try, or if the God was being literal because dam that popcorn was delicious.

The next day, all reporters had dissipated and the news appeared disinterested. Lucretia had stayed true to her word and remarked on social media that everything had been sorted out.

Leo filled Piper, Jason and Mr McLean on what had happened (giving Mr McLean the edited, non-Godly version of course), and then it had been time for the demigods to head back to camp.

When they entered, it was difficult not to notice that the camp was in chaos as the Stoll brothers had a massive lightsaber duel going on.

Leo groaned in dread, and instantly ran to his cabin in the hopes that one of his siblings would be there to explain what in the name of Hades they had done.

He tumbled through the doorway, and Nyssa was there helping up in an instant.

Before she could ask him anything, Leo put a hand up to signal that he wanted to speak first.

"Stolls...Lightsabers...what?" He managed to pant out. Nyssa expression was terrifying. Oh we just asked them for a few annoying prank ideas, nothing serious.

At Lucretia's mansion

The phone rang and Lucretia picked it up reluctantly. She was making more of an effort with the children, and she didn't want to be on the phone too long.

She answered the call, but before she could say anything a voice blared out "AND HIS NAME IS JOHN CENA" Frowning, she hung up. That had to have been a prank call.

The phone rang again, and Lucretia once again picked up, praying that it wasn't another prank call.

"I'm never gonna give you up." Played over the phone. Brow furrowing even more, Lucretia ended the call.

And the phone rang again. Biting her lip in frustration, Lucretia swore that if this was another prank call, then she wasn't answering the phone again.

"Mmh what cha say." Muffling a scream of frustration, Lucretia muted her phone.

That was then the TV started.

On Mount Olympus

Apollo smirked at his Godly half brother while they (and a few of the other Olympians) lounged around the throne room.

"Angel, really?" He asked, raising an eyebrow sarcastically. Sadly for him, Hermes shrugged off his sarcasm and returned the smirk with a mischievous smile of his own.

"I was going to call myself cherub, but I didn't think that sounded serious enough for a lawyer." Apollo laughed as Artemis rolled her eyes, muttering disparaging comments about men under her breath.

"Though I must inquire as to why you actually materialised yourselves when this matter could have just as easily been settled from up here?" Aphrodite's eyes sparkled playfully as she asked this, filing her nails as if to pretend that she wasn't really paying attention to this conversation when in actual fact she had just been waiting for the opportune moment to embarrass her husband.

Just as she had expected, Hephaestus appeared rather flushed, hands tinkering away with some random contraption on his lap.

He mumbled some vague, non-specific answer as Hermes grinned evilly.

"Oh, I mentioned that myself, but Hephaestus was oddly set on going down ourselves and attending to the matter personally." Tiny flames erupted in the fire God's bushy beard, much to the other Gods' delight.

"So, is it actually possible that you care about your children, organic beings who, despite being created by you, are not machines?" Athena rolled her eyes at Aphrodite's teasing.

"Haven't you interfered on behalf of your daughter as well? Though of course, your contribution was mostly impractical fashion choices." Aphrodite's blazing eyes honed in on the Goddess of wisdom.

"Well I didn't send my daughter off on a quest that had already killed many of my children." The Goddess of beauty smiled sweetly as Athena bristled.

Before the squabbling could descend into an actual fight that would undoubtedly drag all Gods present in, a quiet voice piped up from the hearth.

"I think it's sweet that you are interacting more with your children." All eyes swivelled to the previously unnoticed Goddess of the hearth. Hestia was absent-mindedly turning over the coals as she beamed up at the others.

All other Gods present shifted as they realised that Hestia was probably delighted that they were getting in contact with their children more often.

Although they all felt a slight pang of guilt over all of the children they had ignored or refused to help over the years, none would admit to it.

And if they all privately swore that they'd try to do better in the future, then that was certainly none of each other's business.

* * *

* basically meaning trash/waste of space

Well, I can only apologise once again for my long absence, and pray that this extended chapter somewhat makes up for it. I had a lot of fun writing this chapter so I hope that you get equal enjoyment reading it. Next up will probably be Teresa, so I will see you then.


	14. Chapter 14

*Zombie moans as I rise from my bottomless pit* So, life has been pretty much none stop hectic for quite a few months now. I had an internship in London for a month and couldn't write anything, then I got back for like two weeks before having to move to university, and I recently lost a family member who was really dear to me. So I'm really sorry that I've not updated in so long, but life really has been mental lately. Hopefully this Halloween special will make it up to you all. Thank you to everyone who is still sticking with my stories despite my horrendous update schedule.

Melancholy's Sunshine : Thank you. And Hephaestus has many tricks up his sleeve, though whether or not he'll be able to use them next time Leo gets in trouble is unknown. And I really must apologise for the wait.

Chromatophobe : Thanks J (even if all of these replies are going to be incredibly late). It's weird to think that the last chapter I wrote of this was in college during exam season, and now we are both in uni.

Skyfir3S4kur4 : It seems that the Teresa chapter has been sincerely anticipated And I'm really glad that you loved this chapter, fatherly Hephaestus was so much fun to write. I'm not as awesome as you guys. My updates are always late, yet you all keep reviewing which makes you so much more awesome than I could ever be.

Elephantlover123 : I'm usually too lazy to login whenever I'm doing anything on Fanfiction Thanks for saying the chapter was awesome, Hermes and Hephaestus were really fun to write. And even though you said that you don't mind the wait, I'm still sorry that it was this ridiculously long.

SunlessShipper : *Hands tissue* It's good that those are happy tears, rather than I just attacked you with angst tears. Though that may change this chapter…

FuzzyElf24 : And I love you random citizen! (Sorry, I really love that Megamind quote and like to use it as much as possible). Though seriously, I love all of you guys. It's so nice to see familiar names in the review section, I really enjoy getting to talk to you like this.

Neon Wish Likes Pine Trees : I'll take it that you enjoyed the chapter then

TheGirlWithQuirks : Welcome to the story! And I'll try and get that sorted at some point, it really would make things easier. Thanks for the suggestion.

Hispanicin : Hehe, glad to hear that you love it. I love writing it, even if I hardly ever get the chance to anymore.

Sidda : *Glomps back* I am so, so sorry for leaving for ages again! Life's just been really difficult lately, and it's been hard finding the time to write. I'm glad to hear that your thoughts were getting better (and if you've gone back to school then I hope that they have remained good). I also hope that your insomnia has improved. I've recently gotten into Black Butler, Finny is my fave. Who is yours?

A23 : Honestly, please never feel like you have to apologise for being "late" to review, especially when your review is as lovely as this one. I'm so much later than you and I'm very lucky that you guys choose to review at all. Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed camp (camping was one of my favourite parts of being in the Girl Guides), even if it was months ago. Thank you for reviewing, and I'm sorry that this was so late (not quite a year, but still longer than it should have been).

Ninjacook123 : Thanks for thinking that both me and my story are great, it makes me really happy to know that you like it. And I have finally read Trials of Apollo, and I am still internally screaming over the ending! Life's been kinda rubbish lately, but thank you for asking and I hope that you are being treated well by life. Yeah, sometimes I have to reread my stories to remember who everyone is. Teresa is the abusive foster mum who locked Leo in a closet and roughed him up. About Jadon, I may do a one shot about him settling in to camp at some point in the future, but it may be a long way off seeing as I have quite a few stories on the go at the moment.

Myra109 : Your review came at quite a lucky time seeing as I was thinking over which story to update today And seeing as Teresa is quite highly requested, she is up now.

Disclaimer : Nope, not mine. Never will be. I'll try not to cry. Neither is anything that is being used as a costume idea.

Warning : Violence and kidnapping.

* * *

"BOO!"

"SCHIST LEO!" Leo cackled as Piper swung at him angrily. It was Halloween and the camp was in uproar as they sorted last minute details for the awesome party that they were going to be having in the Bunker.

There was also the uproar caused by infighting due to the night before.

Mischief night was like a great big gift to the children of Hermes who had wreaked unholy terror on anyone and everyone. Hair colours had been changes, embarrassing photos had been taken, and Leo may or may not have been right at their side with some crazy mischief of his own.

Let's just say that more than one of his friends had received a taco to the face (as revenge for laughing at the taco snatcher incident).

Piper was still glaring at him as she finished tying up the banner that she had previously been trying to place before Leo had appeared behind her and screamed in her ear.

It was eight O'clock, and Leo was already in costume, even though the party was going to start around eleven.

This was because he had promised to take Harley trick or treating. A few of the other older demigods were taking younger siblings, though they had all agreed to make it back for the party.

Leo was practically fizzing with excitement. He adored trick or treating, and though he may be too old for it now (in the eyes of society at least), Harley had given him an excuse to hit the streets again in search of candy.

Because if he was going with Harley anyway, he might as well take a bag along for himself. Loads of people thought that he didn't look his age so it would be fine. Plus, he needed a costume for the party anyway, he was just using his to its full potential.

Leo was currently dressed up as Lance from Voltron, or as Leo liked to call him, spiritual twin number two (spiritual twin number one was still Sokka from Avatar).

Plus, Leo had bribed some of his friends to wear matching costumes. Nico was a perfect Keith (that had taken a lot of wheedling and quite a few trips to McDonalds to arrange), Percy made a pretty decent Shiro, Annabeth was relatively Pidge-ish, Piper rocked being Allura and Frank was gently persuaded (meaning pestered) into being Hunk. He didn't know who to get to play Coran, but he was pretty satisfied with those he had blackma… asked to dress up with him.

He had to say that he was impressed with everyone's spirit. For a group of kids/teenagers regularly harassed by monsters and demons, the demigods were still up for a spook filled night.

The Aphrodite kids in particular were loving dressing everyone up and doing spectacular make-up. After taking Harley out, Leo was tempted to ask Piper to do some day of the dead make up for him, or maybe a blue lion to match his costume.

Speaking of blue lions, Leo smiled as Harley bumbled up to him, beaming as Leo exited the bunker to meet him. Harley, in the spirit of brotherhood, had dressed up as the blue lion. He looked beyond adorable, and didn't seem to mind being told so. Leo picked him up and walked towards the way out of the camp.

He waved to Hazel as he passed the daughter of Pluto who was delightedly eating a chocolate apple in her Willow costume. The seven had watched Buffy when over at Percy's for Thanksgiving, and Hazel had loved the nerdy but kind hearted Willow.

As they made their way through the camp, calling greetings to fellow campers and admiring costumes and decorations (they really had gone overboard-Leo loved it), Jason sidled up and walked along with them.

Leo couldn't help snickering when he saw Jason's costume. Another show that they had binge watched together (this time it had been over at Piper's) was Shadowhunters, and some of them had read the books as well. This had somehow lead to Jason being called Jace constantly (the reasoning being: you're both blonde, both of your names begin with a J and also you are both considered as being one of the most powerful fighters of your generation) and Piper had sweet talked him into dressing as Jace.

"What's up Superman, or should I say, angel boy?" Jason rolled his eyes, but Leo's amazing best friend senses could tell that something was bothering the older boy. The son of Jupiter shifted slightly and scratched at his ear.

"I was just wondering if you needed someone to play chaperone?" Leo choked.

"You do know I'm sixteen Jay?" Shockingly, Jason blushed a little, before evading his gaze.

"Yeah, well aren't you going to be going for candy as well? Someone young enough to still be trick or treating needs a chaperone." Leo was about to argue this point, but his mouth snapped shut as something occurred to him.

"Do you want to go trick or treating?" He tried not to make his voice incredulous, though he knew that had failed when Jason got a little defensive.

"I just… I remember going with Thalia when we younger and I always wondered what it would be like to take a younger sibling, but obviously I don't have any younger siblings except you, Hazel, Frank and Nico, and although you are younger than me you are still too old for trick or treating and…" Leo threw his hands up to cut him off.

"If you want to come then I'm fine with it. You don't have to justify Halloween spirit to me bro. Is that alright with you Harley?" His younger brother (who had fallen silent as the older demigods talked) looked Jason's costume up and down with a critical eye.

"Okay!" He grinned and Jason smiled back. They had kept moving as they talked, and they had now reached the vehicle that they were all using to go into the city.

Other groups nodded to them as they all piled in, and the van was filled with excited chattering about how much candy they were all going to get.

Harley was particularly boisterous, and Leo had to keep bumping into Jason to avoid getting his nose broken by a flailing arm.

Eventually they reached their drop of point, and they all parted ways with cheerful farewells. They all probably would have stuck together, but Leo knew for a fact that you got less candy in large groups, he was a trick or treat king.

Their little trio ambled round, going from door to door and gaining plenty of sweets. At every house, Leo and Harley would bound up to the door together as Jason waited for them with an affectionate grin on his face. The Hephaestus duo were a big hit, dimpling together and playing up their little double act.

Sure, there were a few misers who refused to dish out the treats, but overall it was shaping up to be a great Halloween.

It was nearing nine, and all three of them were hyped up on candy (he'd shared his with Jason who had truly been getting into the childishness of the holiday). They were nearing a more secluded area, a place where the houses were a little more spread out, a little bit more luxurious.

It was then that Leo realised that he had dropped his helmet a little way back. He'd taken it off when it had hindered his ability to stuff as much candy as possible into his mouth and then had just forgotten that he'd been carrying it. Cursing quietly under his breath in Spanish, Leo halted his companions.

"Hey guys, I've dropped my helmet somewhere. How about you two take these houses and I'll catch up." Both of the others looked hesitant, but for different reasons. Harley pouted and complained that they were wearing matching costumes and had to go together whilst Jason looked a little concerned about just letting Leo wonder off by himself.

"Listen Harley," Leo crouched down so that he could whisper in Harley's ear "between you and me, I think Jason would really appreciate the chance to knock on some doors, but he's way too cool to do it without an excuse. I need you to take him and get him to fill my bag up, okay?" Harley's eyes lit up at this mission from his brother, and he nodded emphatically.

Jason looked at him suspiciously, so Leo shrugged and stood up.

"I'll be fine Jason. I have my toolbelt under this costume, and my fire powers. Plus, this is quite possibly one of the only nights were people would laugh my powers off as some sort of costume joke." Jason sighed and nodded. Leo shoved his candy bag into Jason's hands and winked conspiratorially at his younger brother who grabbed a surprised looking Jason by the wrist and pulled him up the sidewalk towards the first house.

Leo retraced his steps, and was relieved to find his helmet was not too far from the others, though it was around the corner and thus out of sight. He had to frown at the thought of not being able to see Jason awkwardly yelling out trick or treat and pretending to be younger than he actually is. Cackling a little at the thought, Leo ran over to his helmet.

However, his distraction caused him to not pay attention to his surroundings, and he smacked into someone rather hard, causing them both to fall down.

"My bad." Leo declared as he stood up, sheepishly holding his hand out to the person on the ground.

"I guess it is the date for things that go bump in the night" He joked awkwardly as the woman he had knocked over remained on the floor.

Suddenly, she began laughing creepily. It was dark, and Leo couldn't see under her ice blonde hair that was covering her face, but sheer dread filled him at that voice.

Her face tilted upwards, and Leo stumbled back, gasping.

It was Teresa. Her eyes were as icy blue as they had been five years ago, but the rest of her face had clearly suffered from her time spent in jail.

"Hello honey." Her tone dripped with malice, and Leo turned on his heel, only to be grabbed by a tall, shadowy figure that was hovering behind him.

The imposing figures green eyes practically glowed down at him with wicked delight.

"Well look who we have here." Leo could practically feel the blood draining from his face as he stared up at Officer Cormac who was gripping him painfully.

"Are you okay sweetie?" Teresa rose slowly, eyes glinting.

"I'm fine darling. Even better considering what a treat we've just been given." Her smile was wicked, and Leo's head span.

"You two are together! What the hell, that's like a reversed Joker-Harley Quinn weirdo relationship, except you were both psycho to start with!" Cormac didn't take to kindly to this, twisting his arms up painfully behind his back.

For a moment, Leo felt truly desperate, mind flashing back to when he was a kid and was at the mercy of either of these two freaks. This moment of hopelessness was enough for Cormac to start hauling him away, tossed over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Teresa followed, and Leo stared as his helmet got further and further away.

His finger tightened, and he snapped out of his funk in order to start struggling. But it was too late. Teresa skipped ahead and unlocked the door of a fairly ordinary detached house. As it was Halloween, Leo prayed that there would be someone nearby to help him, but no one was around here. It was getting rather late after all.

Cormac carried him into the living room, and Teresa dragged in a wooden chair from what Leo presumed was the kitchen.

Resuming his struggling, Leo managed to knee Cormac in the face, causing the burly man to growl in pain and drop him. The collision with the floor wasn't exactly pleasant, but it gave Leo the opportunity to scramble up and try to make it to the door.

A strong fist in his back halted him in his tracks, and this was followed up by the point of a high heel digging into the ridges of his spine.

"You aren't going anywhere." Teresa spat as Leo was once again dragged up by Cormac. He was toted over to the chair, and Cormac pulled of his belt to bind him to the uncomfortable wood.

Then the crazy couple stood over him, smirking.

Leo hoped that Jason and Harley would get worried waiting for him, and decide to look, because he really didn't like his odds right now.

"So, how did you two insane freaks get together?" Leo stalled, wanting to put off the inevitable beating. His insides were still frozen, dread rising as two of his nightmares loomed over him.

"Oh, you know how it is. Beautiful, young lady sent to prison for giving a filthy brat what he deserves, police officer who despises this rotten orphan meets her, they fall in love and once her sentence is up, the police officer quits his job and they move away together. Really, I'd almost thank you for bringing us together if I didn't want to hurt you so much." Teresa trilled as she wrapped herself around Cormac.

Leo almost wanted to laugh, not out of amusement but out of sheer amazement at how his life was just a series of unbelievable coincidences. How did two of the people who hated him the most, and who had hurt him the most ended up together.

"Oh, and before you devise a plan to run away, here's a little trick to match the treat of having you here." Cormac reached down, grabbed one of Leo's booted feet, and twisted it in a fluent movement.

A yelp was pulled from his throat at the crack, and tears began to burn in his eyes as more nightmare memories flooded his mind.

Memories of numerous injuries, pain building up as he was abused by adults who should have looked after him.

He whimpered, and was literally unable to prevent a tear from running down his face.

Gods let Jason find him soon.

Jason's P.O.V

Jason paced anxiously as Harley eyed him with worry, sucking a lollypop as he watched the older demigod.

Leo had said that he's meet up with them, but it had been fifteen minutes. Surely it wouldn't have taken that long to find the stupid helmet.

He'd taken Harley to the small group of houses I this area, and had even bagged some candy himself, filled with a secret thrill as he recalled his happy childhood memories of Halloween with Thalia.

It had been rather fun, and Jason had enjoyed himself, right up until he realised that they were at the last house and Leo was still nowhere in sight.

Finally, Jason snapped.

"Come on Harley, we're going to look for him." Harley nodded obediently, slipping his hand into Jason. Usually the young son of Hephaestus was rambunctious and hyper (as he had been for most of this night), but the kid was clearly worried about Leo.

"Don't worry, I'm sure he'll be fine. He probably just got distracted by something, you know what he's like." Harley nodded, but his strong grip on Jason's hand remained.

Truthfully, Jason was thankful for this. It was good that at least one of the brothers was safe by his side.

And if the other brother wasn't, then Gods help whatever was putting him in danger.

Jason was hyped up on sherbet and protective older brother rage. Any monsters wont know what's coming for them.

* * *

So, I hope that you all enjoyed that. I am once again really sorry for the lateness, and I wish that I could promise a better update schedule, but life is just insane.


	15. Chapter 15

Hey everyone. As I already said on Knowing Leo, things haven't been so great for me lately, but I'm back in business now and I'm sorry for how long it has taken me to continue writing. I hope you all enjoy the story, and thank you for your continued support of my writing. A quick warning, this chapter will include violence and memories of child abuse. Italics signal a memory.

Madwamoose: Thank you for being so understanding And I don't know why, but I'm naturally inclined to end chapters on cliff-hangers, I guess I'm just naturally sadistic.

Skyfir3S4kur4: I ended it there because I am a cruel and unusual person. I am sorry for how long it took me to update though.

Elephantlover123: I thought it was fun to have a theme that matched the time of year, though I guess it's a little off now. I'm glad to hear that the twist worked, it came to me as I was thinking up ideas for Teresa and Cormac that their hatred of Leo could make a relationship between them interesting.

Melancholy's Sunshine: I wonder sometimes how any of Nemesis's kids could function at camp with the amount of unavenged bad things that happen to the demigods. I do think that everyone in camp (especially Jadon) would enjoy poking those two with sticks, I certainly would and I created them! And was that a nice Undertale reference there, because Megalovania would definitely be playing in that situation.

Alvin6299: Thank you so much for your patience. I hated making you all wait for me to update again, but life is unpredictable. And for your second review, the demigods will not be happy if anyone harms Leo, there will definitely be Hades to pay. I hope that it's still worth waiting for.

Guest: Thank you

SunlessShipper: Because making Leo suffer then resolving his issues makes me happy.

Mondmaedchen: He does indeed need their help ;)

A23: I'm delighted that you enjoyed it so much, to hear that my update made your day gives me an amazing feeling (and that you appreciate the Halloween theme). Though I owe you an apology as I took so long to update again.

Guest: It took a while, but life did start getting better so I'm able to write again! Thank you for saying that I have talent, I love writing so it's nice to hear that people actually think that I'm good at it.

Hi: Hello! That's why Leo is my favourite character as well, he has hidden depths that a lot of people dismiss, but I loved him from the start. I knew from the beginning that there was more to him than meets the eye.

Sidda: Please don't kill me, even if I am evil for taking so long to update. I think Harley and Joker are some of DCs best villains, though I love Deathstroke for the Dick Grayson angst he causes. Sebastian is awesome two, my second fave. And I'm glad that you made a good friend Life was hard but I kicked it in the gut and now I'm back to write.

FuzzyElf24: You're very welcome! And I'm sorry for the wait.

Dawnbreak55: It took me a while, but I'm continuing it now. Jason has to decide what to do right now.

Childofdeath2: I hope that you didn't die due to the wait. Stay with us, updates are happening again!

Guest: I'll take that as 'what do you think you're doing leaving the story there?!' what. To answer, I was being evil

Guest: I am, and I will never give up on my stories.

Guest: What a polite review, of course I don't mind writing more! Thank you for wanting me to. And I believe it counts as a cliffhanger as everyone else thinks I'm evil for it.

Weeziewoo: My good sir, it's always nice to welcome a member of the undead to the party, did you take the Physician's cure too? And as it took me so long to update I guess you must have flipped. I must know, was it a front or back flip?

Ninjacook123: Please don't feel obligated to review, I love reading them all, but don't inconvenience yourself. Thanks for asking about how I am, things are a lot better now. Teresa and Cormac will definitely be punished for their actions.

'Mcshizzle: You may have to get your heart checked out if it's clenching ;) Here is the conclusion to the Teresa/Cormac section of the story. I apologise for the wait.

Guest: Please tell your first half not to cry, Leo will be fine… or will he? Mwah hah hah. To the second half, no promises.

Puppy 17: I guess you could say it was fate.

YolkyGoblin: Your magical energy is greatly appreciated, though it took a while to reach me, and I'm able to write again now!

Oliviadbell: I'm updating now, but I am sorry for the time it has taken me.

Irene2005: Thank you, both for saying that you like the story and for the compliment. I'm definitely going to continue; I love the story too much to give it up.

Flaming eyeball: Glad to see another Ao no exorcist lover. Can I guess from your icon that you are a Rin fan? My faves are Yukio and Shima though both are being problematic right now…

Smurf: I may do another follow up chapter for that segment (like I did for Jadon). Thanks for bringing it up, I had forgotten that the nightmare was never really discussed.

Disclaimer: If wishes were horses then beggars would ride. But, alas, wishes are not horses and I do not own Percy Jackson. On a side note, I don't ride either.

* * *

Leo's P.O.V

Leo's friends had called him brave many times, and a few of those times he had even felt it. One of those moments was when he had allowed himself to be killed for the greater good. Sure, he'd had the Physician's cure handy, but his plan was still shaky so he had permitted himself to be called brave for what he had done. After his first quest, Piper and Jason had both called him courageous, and after the whole… debacle with Hera showing off his deepest darkest secrets all of his friends had agreed that he was a strong person.

Leo wasn't feeling brave, strong or courageous right now. His animal namesake may be praised throughout the world for being a symbol of valour, but Leo wasn't really getting into the Gryffindor spirit right now.

Helpless tears dripped from his chin. No matter how hard he tried to choke them back, they just kept coming, and obviously neither of his hands were free to wipe them.

His captors weren't exactly stepping forwards to dry his eyes either. Another whimper was torn from his throat as a new red line formed on his chest.

Teresa wasn't even using a knife to cut into him. In her hand was a sharp black heeled shoe. The crazy bruja used to just stomp on him in her heels, but now that she had him tied up her twisted creativity was running wild.

 _The point was digging into his shoulder, a drop of blood oozing up from where it pricked his skin as she loomed over him, wine glass in hand. Face impassive, the red liquid was tipped over him._

' _Now look at the mess you've made?'_

He was snapped out of the memory by the reappearance of Cormac. The ex-police officer had gone to make a cup of coffee, as if this was all completely normal, as if he didn't have a teenager tied up in his living room whilst his wife drew insults on him with a heel.

Because degrading comments were appearing on his tanned chest, the red blood streaking across his stomach. Liar spread across his collarbone, stupid was sprawled diagonally across his front and she was just starting to mark brat over his hip when she was handed the tea by her husband.

Teresa stood up, temporarily dropping her heel in favour of taking a sip of tea.

Leo had panicked when the armour that made up his costume had been yanked off and the black top worn under it was tugged up. Now he knew that he was right to worry. None of the cuts were deep, to be honest they barely drew blood, but the shame he felt at seeing the hurtful words on his skin made him feel sick.

It didn't help his nausea to see Cormac take his wife's place as she danced back to the kitchen. The woman had always been loopy, but now she was completely unhinged. Cormac was sane. An asshole, but a sane one, and an ex man of the law to boot. He'd never been a good policeman, but surely even he should see that this was going too far. A quick beating was his usual tactic, not an actual kidnapping.

Evidently the man's morality had declined even more after meeting Teresa as a fist found its way into his stomach, catching the slashes that formed the word stupid and causing more blood to spill.

The tall man raised his fist to Leo's face. Traces of blood marked his knuckles.

"You don't know how many times I've wanted to punch you, the little orphan runaway extraordinaire. Sure, I got a few jabs in every now and again, but not nearly enough to make up for all the reprimands from my boss for letting you get away. Did you know that I always wanted to be a police officer when I was younger? It was my dream job." Leo frowned.

"If it was such a dream job, why did you quit? Did it occur to you that your real dream was to find a wife even crazier than you so that you could audition to be in a DC movie as Gotham's most Arkham worthy couple?" It seemed like Leo did have some bravery left. Though this could have possibly been classified as stupidity instead as Leo was once again backhanded.

"I told Teresa that I had quit but that wasn't exactly true. You got me fired. Even though I had finally caught you like the rat that you are, you still ruined my life. Someone suspected that I had hurt you. There was no evidence, but the higher ups found a ridiculous excuse and discharged me!"

"Gee, I wish that I could say that I'm sorry, but I feel like I should be getting a medal for public services right now. Surely the streets are safer without you patrolling them." Cormac's eyes darkened.

"It was my dream!"

"Well, sometimes dreams aren't meant to be followed. Unless you dream about jumping off of a bridge, in which case I fully support…" Wow, it was really hard to complete a witty remark when a hand was entangling itself in your hair and slamming your head into the back of an oak chair.

"I bet you used to dream of getting your mommy back, so I guess you destroyed your own dreams as well. After all, you must have been the one who set the blaze." Leo stiffened. That had hit too close to home. Way too close to home. Cormac obviously sensed the weakness, sniffing it out like as shark in bloody water.

"Of course, there was no real evidence for that either, but it's the most logical conclusion, isn't it?" Green eyes focussed on Leo's flexing hands.

" _That demon murdered my sister!"_

"You're a murderer." Teresa remarked as she entered the living room. The son of Hephaestus was shaking. It wasn't true. His friends had told him that it wasn't his fault.

"We may have hurt you, brat, but neither of us has ever killed somebody." Cormac pressed the point. Leo tried to withdraw into himself, but his restraints prevented him.

"Your own mother to boot!" Teresa laughed out, mirth radiating from her psychotic blue eyes.

"I DIDN'T DO IT!" Exploded Leo, rage filling him. His fire licked at his insides, begging to be set free, to burn the ropes around him. But he couldn't do it. What if he lost control? His anger could overwhelm him. The gruesome twosome wouldn't kill him, only bang him up. He could take that. He'd taken worse. There was no need to risk burning them. Like he had burnt his mo… Leo violently shook his head.

"It was an accident." He murmured, more to himself than to the adults. All of a sudden, a dish towel was shoved into his mouth and tied around the back of his head.

"No more lies." Teresa hissed.

" _Liars don't get to eat. Liars get to stay quietly locked away."_

Shuddering, Leo attempted to stop himself from falling down the rabbit hole that was his memories. Not that the present day was much better, with two of the cruellest people he had ever met staring down at him.

He wanted to scream at them to pudrete en el infierno (rot in hell). To use sarcasm and jokes as a way of showing them that they didn't scare him.

He couldn't. A new wave of helplessness washed over him. It was as if he was a child all over again, left at the mercy of adults who wanted to hurt him, with no one to be his saviour.

Why hadn't Jason found him yet?

Jason's P.O.V

The son of Jupiter stared at the white helmet and blue lying on the sidewalk. It was hard to miss, even in the dark.

Leo was in trouble.

There was no way that he would not be able to see the missing part of his costume, and all jokes about his attention span aside, Jason knew that Leo would never just ditch his little brother for twenty minutes. He also hoped that they had reached a point where Leo wouldn't ditch **him** for such a concerning length of time without an explanation.

Add in the fact that they were meant to be trick or treating which was something that Leo had clearly been enjoying earlier and there was just no fathomable reason why Leo could have been distracted.

Harley tugged his hand.

"Leo needs our help, doesn't he?" The young boy was clearly trying to keep a brave face, and as he had seen plenty of his siblings fighting dangerous battles he was doing an admirable job, but the tremble of his lower lip gave away his worry.

"It looks like it." Jason was torn. He desperately wanted to start the search for Leo immediately, but he'd promised Leo that he'd look after Harley, and that meant taking the boy back to the meeting spot so that they could bring him back to camp.

Either way, the others would have to be informed. He hated spoiling their night as well, but Leo's safety was far more important than letting them stay in a party mood.

"Harley, I'm going to Iris message the camp and let the others know what's happened. We'll decide what to do when they get here, okay?" Harley nodded forlornly and sat down on Leo's helmet. Instinct from being around Leo caused Jason to lean forwards and rustle the boy's hair which was sticking up like he'd received a shock due to him tugging his lion hood off earlier.

"We'll find him." The young boy's sad eyes locked onto his.

"But will he be okay when we do?"

Percy's P.O.V

Preparation for the party had ended a short while ago, and now everyone was waiting for the campers who had gone trick or treating to return in order to get the party started.

Percy smiled as he recalled how excited everyone had been. Apparently even Jason had gone with Leo to knock on doors for candy. The son of Poseidon was glad to hear that Jason was going with Leo, the other boy sometimes needed to just loosen up, and dealing with Leo and his little brother on a sugar rush would probably do the trick.

Speaking of the Latino boy, he was the reason why Percy had been forced into spraying part of his hair white for the night. The younger demigod had been so enthusiastic about the group costume that Percy had agreed be the black paladin, but he had hoped that he would be allowed to wiggle out of the white hair part. Yet Leo had been adamant, and when Percy had realised that Piper, Frank and even Annabeth had been persuaded into joining in as well, Percy had relented.

It was also nice to see the truly happy smile on Leo's face. All of the seven had been more attuned to Leo's emotional state after the boy had miraculously returned from the dead. For a while after crashing back into camp, the younger boy's smiles had held a haunted quality that Halloween had ironically chased away.

Percy was currently making his way over to the Hades cabin where the gang (plus Nico and Will, minus Leo and Jason) were gathering before the party. Somehow, Will had convinced Nico to dress up as a devil and the son of Apollo was going to be an angel.

Percy was looking forwards asking just how the healer had managed this feat.

The door of the cabin loomed before him, and he pushed his way in with a big smile.

"Hey!" He greeted cheerfully, only to pause when he noticed the strange atmosphere in the room. Frank, who had been partway to his feet, collapsed back down to the ground.

"I guess that saves me going to hurry you up." Every face in the room was sombre, though in a different way. Annabeth, Piper and Nico were all a variation of angry, Will looked shocked, Hazel tearful and Frank deeply troubled.

Flickering in the middle of the circle that they had formed on the cabin floor was an Iris message from Jason.

The son of Jupiter seemed to be displaying a mixture of all of the other's reactions. Behind him, sitting on a white and blue helmet that matched the white and black one under Percy's own arm was Harley, kicking at the ground with two bags of Halloween candy abandoned beside him.

The son of Poseidon instantly spotted who was missing from this scene.

"What's happened to Leo?" The helmet left on the ground was a clear indicator that something was up.

"We don't know. He dropped his helmet, and we split up for a few minutes so that he could double back and grab it. We waited for a bit, but after a while it was obvious that something was wrong so we came to look for him. We found the helmet out in the open, no sign of Leo."

This deeply unsettled Percy.

"Nothing that would point to Leo running?" Little Harley rocketed to his feet, a look of indignant rage twisting his features.

"Leo would never run away and leave us behind! He promised. He promised Nyssa and Jake that he wouldn't shirk his duties as counsellor of Cabin nine." Hastily, Percy raised his hands in an attempt to stave of the incoming fit of tears.

"I didn't mean that. I trust Leo to stay with us even when things get tough. That didn't come across how I wanted it to at all. I meant, did it look like Leo had ran to draw a monster away from the residential area?" Harley's cheeks coloured and he sank back down onto the helmet, looking away.

"There was nothing that I could find Perce." Jason's voice was fraught with worry.

"Okay, I'll shadow travel us over to where you are if you can describe it to me." Quickly, Jason summarised his location, and Percy decided it was his turn to step in.

"Alright, when we get there, one of us will take Harley to the drop off point and the rest of us will start searching for Leo."

"No." The single word was uttered with a complete confidence that the speaker would get what he wished. Percy stared at Harley in disbelief.

"I'm going to help bring Leo back." The son of Jupiter turned towards the young boy.

"Harley, Leo wanted me to keep you safe. We don't know what happened to him, there could be monsters attacking him and I don't want you in danger. I don't think that Leo would want you to be either." Harley stared back at Jason coolly, arms folded across his chest. An unexpected maturity radiated from the boy's stance.

"I'm a demigod, my life is always in danger. And a lot of you demigods seem to forget that I was there during the war too. We all fought together." All of the older demigods observed the younger boy in a new light. It was true that everyone had done their part during the previous battles, no matter how young they were.

"Also, I've got a way to track Leo."

"WHAT!" All of the group yelled as Harley smugly gazed at them.

"Why didn't you mention this to me earlier?" Jason's voice was part exasperated, part hopeful.

"I forgot." Harley had the good grace to look embarrassed about forgetting something so important, but his forgetfulness wasn't important right now.

"Did you build a tracking device for him or something?" Annabeth interjected. The little son of Hephaestus nodded sheepishly.

"It was when he was… dead. I always thought that he was still out there. I never got to complete it before he came back, but Nyssa found it afterwards and helped me complete it. She said that it was a good contribution to keeping our cabin sane. It should be with either her or Jake right now." Percy was divided between being impressed at Cabin nine's foresight, and disappointed that he hadn't thought to request a tracker for the trouble-magnet himself.

Will and Piper rose from their sitting positions, stating that they knew where Nyssa and Jake where respectively before sprinting off to ask for the tracker.

The others took a collective deep breath.

"You'll let me help now, won't you?" Harley's voice wavered, some of the confidence from earlier draining out of him at the realisation that Nyssa and/or Jake was going to be brought in because they would both understand that Leo would be in trouble if people were asking for the tracker.

"I don't think that we could stop you. However, if there are monster problems, I want you to stay back as much as possible. Leo would never forgive me for letting you get injured." Harley seemed to agree to this condition.

"Shouldn't you alert the other trick or treaters that your trio won't be making it back to the bus in time?" Hazel spoke up for the first time and Jason appeared to realise that it was coming awfully close to the designated meeting time.

"Okay, I'll call them now, See you all soon." The Iris message disintegrated, leaving the cabin silent.

Percy hated sitting in such an oppressive atmosphere, but he couldn't think of a way to lighten the mood. Leo was the team's little brother, alongside Nico, and they were all admittedly overprotective of him in some ways.

He recalled the numerous times that they had promised that anybody who hurt Leo would answer to them.

The water wielding demigod was willing to stick to this promise.

All of a sudden, the door was flung open and Piper and Will tumbled in, with Nyssa and Jake followed them with fire in their eyes.

Nyssa was clutching a strange contraption that could only be the Leo tracker. Jake moved forwards.

"Let's go get our little brother back."

* * *

I really hope you enjoyed this chapter. I know that some people may have preferred it if only the seven went to find Leo, but I think that he'll need all the moral support that he can get when they find him. See you next time.


	16. Chapter 16

Not quite on Halloween, but I'll take it. I'm sorry for the wait, but I don't think I'll be able to have a consistent update schedule whilst at uni, my workload just doesn't allow for it. With that being said, thank you to everybody who faved or followed, and let's carry on with this segment of Reunions. This will not be the last chapter on the devious duo, so tune in next time for the final part of this particular situation. And a quick warning, this chapter is dark. Anybody who is sensitive to themes of abuse and suicidal ideation may want to skip this.

Azhou1: Yeah, it took me a while didn't it.

Melancholy's Sunshine: As much as they deserve it, I don't think that I'll be taking things quite that far. But the demigods definitely will not be happy with them, so some punishment will be in order.

Leohotstuff: Thank you (great name by the way).

YolkyGoblin: Thank you ㈴2

Sickly-wicked: I'm glad to hear it. And their butts are seriously in need of a good kicking.

Alvin6299: It's good to know that bringing his siblings in worked, I was worried that some people would want me to keep it just as the seven. And I do hope they are worth the wait as I'm so bad at updating them lately.

FellowBookReader: Oh don't worry, they intend to.

Mondmaedchen: Teehee, would I really be that evil? The answer is yes.

Flaming eyeball: Yeah, Yukio is being really erratic. And Shima needs to pick a side soon. Lightning is a strange one, but I admit he amuses me.

Ninjacook123: I'm honoured to be your favourite author, and to know that my update made your day. Hopefully they will continue to do so because your reviews always make me smile. And I'm especially glad that you are enjoying both stories as I love writing them. Possibly Miss Sparrow will be next, I'm thinking of doing a lighter one to counteract this one. Though this may change if I get inspired to write someone else.

FuzzyElf24: Yeah… he'll be fine. *Sweats nervously*. I'm happy to hear that you love the story.

Guest: Please say you didn't actually go insane. If you did then I'm sorry. The angst is just too strong sometimes. And team Leo rocks!

TheMuggleSlytherin: Nah, I love him too much to kill him. And I laughed to myself when I wrote that line (just imagine the American anthem suddenly starts playing behind him).

No one important: Wow, that is a lot of reviews, so I am going to reply to them all here. I never forgot you guys, I just have so much work to do that I can't always write fanfic when I want to and it sucks. But, just as you will persistently ask, I will persistently update. It may take me a while, but I will. And I was waiting for Halloween but (as you pointed out) I am hopeless and realised that I had a ton of work to do yesterday that prevented me from updating. It's a day late, but it's still here.

Weeziewoo: I have to hurt him, it's like an addiction ㈴1 And was it an impressive backflip?

Supworld: Yeah, after LAL, I wanted to explore some of the relationships so I thought this was the best way to do it. James is adorable (if I do say so myself). And I'm continuing, don't worry.

Myra109: I'm not that good, considering I can't stick to a schedule. But thank you for saying so anyway., and I'm sure you could be.

Yazbk2988: No they aren't, but I love them so.

Disclaimer: Why must fanfiction hurt me in this way by making me proclaim that I don't own Percy Jackson?

* * *

Piper's P.O.V

The moment Piper's feet touched the floor after Nico's shadow travel, she flung herself into Jason's arms.

"Whatever happened, it wasn't your fault.' Her boyfriend stiffened, and she could feel his shoulder muscles pulling taut.

"I should have walked back with him, the helmet wasn't that far away." Piper had known that he'd do this. Blame himself for something that wasn't his fault.

"Leo wanted you and Harley to enjoy Halloween. I bet he was overjoyed to have a reason to force you into trick or treating properly." Jason gently pushed her away, eyes fixed on the ground.

"That doesn't really help Pipes." That stung a little, but she understood what her boyfriend was getting at.

"Listen, if the trouble that he's in causes you to regret this entire day, he's not going to forgive himself. We're going to get him back, and when we do you are going to tell him how much you secretly enjoyed knocking on doors with Harley. Okay?" Finally, the son of Jupiter removed his gaze from the pavement. There was still guilt in his eyes, but now he looked to be focussed on the task.

Whilst they had talked, Nyssa had handed the tracker to Harley. She explained to the others that Harley had made most of it by himself so he was the best bet to use it, but Piper had the feeling that the daughter of Hephaestus was trying to assuage some of Harley's guilt.

The youngest demigod of the group did look a lot more confident with the device in his hand. His eyes blazed as he glanced up at his siblings.

"Leo's this way." He declared as the device started working. A knot in Piper's chest loosened. Not that she'd doubted the work of the children of the forge, it was just a massive relief to know that Leo could be found.

Without another word, Harley began leading the way to their firebug.

Leo's P.O.V

Wet fabric filled his mouth. Disgust faintly registered in the back of his mind as spit dribbled down his chin from the impromptu gag, but Leo honestly had more important things to focus on.

He had remembered the toolbelt tucked into his costume's pants, but there was no way for him to reach it. There was absolutely nothing he could do. Any movement of his lower half caused his broken ankle to retaliate harshly, and his upper half was sticky with dried blood.

Teresa had finished tracing out the word brat with her heel, but then she had become bored with just using the sharpened shoe and had wandered off to find a new toy to use on him.

Cormac was now sitting in front of him, eyes filled with malicious satisfaction. Inside his head, Leo could hear the horrible clatter of bricks smashing into one another as the walls he had built to subdue the memories of this man and his crazed wife threatened to shatter.

Ever since Hera had played a lovely movie marathon of his memories for his friends, Leo had been struggling to keep them tamped down. Some nights the old fear would creep in and Leo would seek out a friend, rarely telling them that something was wrong but being comforted by their presence anyway. A couple of times they had even guessed that he had a problem, which Leo wasn't always completely comfortable with, but could help on some occasions.

At the moment, Leo was torn between needing a friend nearby to rescue him, to keep him safe, and dreading them finding him like this.

Broken.

Leo knew he was breaking down. Drool had mingled with tears on his chin. In front of him, the ex-police officer was an oppressive force bearing down on him, and Leo was frantically trying to figure out why he hadn't made a move yet. Sure, in the past Cormac was often content with a punch or the threat of a broken bone, but now he had actually snapped Leo's ankle and there was no partner to restrain his actions. No fear of losing his job to hold him back.

And yet he was relaxed in a chair, not making another move.

Even with this dangerous unknown right in face, what was going on out of sight concerned Leo more. Teresa had always been a wild card, with punishments varying from calling him names to physically hurting him. The marks on his chest were like a sick mixture of the two, and Leo truly feared just how far the woman would go.

A crash sounded out, and Leo struggled to turn his head, hope rising in his gut that Jason had found him.

Instead, the unmistakeable sound of heels clacking on a stairway filled the air. Cormac rose from his seat, moving over and yanking the belt from around Leo's hands, pulling up in the process. One of his hands could easily wrap around Leo's skinny wrists, holding him place as he attempted to replace the belt around them.

Wild hope rekindled within the son of Hephaestus. If he could just reach his toolbelt, he could beat these two nightmares without resorting to his deadly flames.

However, an ominous grinding of his wrist bones as Cormac's grip tightened caused him to stop wriggling so furiously. With one ankle down, Leo couldn't really afford to break another bone.

Behind the pair, a demented chuckle started up, and Leo's body rebelled his previous thought, jerking his wrists in terror and swinging his uninjured leg to the best of his capability. Nothing good could come from that laugh.

His flailing was in vain as the belt was swiftly buckled, cutting of his blood supply slightly.

One of his kicks did manage to connect with the man's groin, and Leo was dropped for the second time that night. Unfortunately, he not only landed directly his bloody torso, his broken ankle also struck the ground. For a moment, Leo could do nothing but lie still and whimper. No matter how much pain he had suffered during his life, he could never quite get used to the sensation.

Angry growls came from Cormac as he hunched over, and Teresa hurried over, wailing to her poor darling.

Instinct had lead Leo to fight back when heard Teresa's deranged cackle, and now Leo was cursing it. La pareja loca (the crazy couple) were now even more angry than before, and all Leo had gained was even more pain. Fingers clawed at his the back of his costume, trying to get to his toolbelt, but the sensation jolted his ankle and he retched. Escape was his best option. If he could just get up and run. The broken ankle hurt like Hades, but if he could endure it for one short run let the adrenaline take over and numb the pain just long enough to find Jason. Jason would help him.

A wavering voice inside of him stated that Leo had surely been missing for long enough that Jason would have come searching for him if he cared. Rationality beat it back. With his ADHD, Leo was never really a reliable at telling time. Plus, Jason would have no real clues to go off. And Harley was there too. They had to be looking for him. Leo would just have to meet them half way.

Forcing his good leg under him, he tried to a rise, choking down waves of nausea as the broken shards pieces of his angle scraped the floor. A sudden sharp sensation in his back sent him back into the ground.

"You're going to regret that you dirty little demon." Teresa hauled him up, but struggled with his weight. Although he was still skinny, Leo was no longer a kid, and Teresa was no longer as healthy as she used to be, so his body wasn't as easy to drag around.

Cormac had already demonstrated that he had no such problem lifting the demigod, and Leo found himself unceremoniously tossed over his shoulder.

"Try that stunt again and I'll break your other ankle." The douchebag warned as Leo breathed shallowly.

Being hauled up the stairs didn't help any of Leo's injuries, and his captors seemed to take glee in that. Teresa stalked up the stairs behind her husband, snickering at Leo's quiet whimpers of pain. She even ragged the dish cloth out of his mouth to hear his poorly supressed gasps more clearly.

Due to his position on Cormac's shoulders, Leo was unable to see where they were going. After a few hellish seconds, Leo was put down. His eyes were swimming, but he braced himself in order to figure out what new torture these sickos had planned for him.

Oddly enough, he was in the bathroom. Cormac ducked out of the room, only to be replaced by Teresa. The fire-wielder may have been a little out of it, but he still caught Cormac murmuring not to go too far. It almost made him laugh. They'd kidnapped a teenager who they had both abused in the past, and then started abusing him again. Where exactly did Cormac draw the line on too far?

Simpering that she had everything under control, Teresa shooed her boyfriend out of the bathroom. For one fleeting moment, Cormac glanced back, and Leo could see concern in his gaze. But Leo wasn't stupid enough to think the concern was for him. No, Cormac was worried about what the consequences would be for them if Teresa killed him.

Inhaling shakily, Leo fell back to his old mode of defence. Quips. He knew that he may end up pushing Teresa over the edge, but maybe then Cormac would intervene and stop whatever was about to happen. Or he'd die. He didn't want to, but it would get him away from… he shook his head viciously. His friends were coming for him. They had to be coming for him. Even this thought couldn't stop him from running his mouth.

"Did good old korma send me up here to toilet train his new dog?" He spat with as much sarcasm as he could muster.

"No, I chose to come up here to bathe a dirty rat." Now probably wasn't the best time to be made aware of the bathtub that was about three quarters full of water. Leo wrestled his panic down. Teresa couldn't drown him. Surely that would be taking it too far.

"Get in the tub." At this demand, Leo shook his head.

"In case you hadn't noticed, I can't exactly use one of my legs." The blonde witch observed his twisted ankle, as if assessing the validity of his statement. As if she hadn't been there when Cormac cracked his bones.

Then she fisted her hand into his shirt, just about tugging him into a standing position before shoving him straight over. Leo folded into the tub, unable to prevent himself from bashing his head on the tiles due to the binding around his hands.

Torso fully submerged, Leo frantically sloshed about, water going everywhere as he fought to keep his ringing head in a position where getting to breathe was an option.

Teresa sighed before pulling him up by his hair.

The shock of hitting his head and the pain flaring across his body had initially prevented him from realising just how cold the water was, but when he realised it, Leo relished the numbing effect. However, he didn't want to freeze, so he gradually started upping his temperature. Hopefully his tormentor was too delusional to notice the temperature of the water reaching room temperature rapidly.

Another lovely effect of Leo being dunked was how the water appeared to rust over as dried blood seemed to melt off of his body. Nose scrunched in distaste, Teresa loomed over him.

"You're going to stay there; the water could possibly make you less dirty." Her eyes raked over him. "Then again, everything about you is dirty. You're such an idiot, I honestly don't understand how you can stand yourself." Despite his best efforts, Leo flinched, and Teresa drew back with a delighted twinkle in her eyes.

"You can't stand yourself either! Maybe you're not as hopeless as I thought. You know, don't you? You know that you're a monster, that if someone ever finds it possible to care about you they get hurt." Leo was struggling to not let it show how much Teresa's words were getting to him.

"That's not true." He uttered.

"Oh?" Teresa's vicious smile was the same as it used to be when she bullied Leo. Her attitude was also mostly unchanged (if a bit more unhinged due to her time in jail), but Leo was no longer that unwanted child with no one to turn to.

"There are people who care about me, and when they find you, you're in for a world of hurt." Teresa's laugh echoed around the bathroom.

"Are you sure about that? Are you positive that they aren't celebrating getting rid of you right now? Come on Leo, if they've kept you around then it must be as a source of cheap entertainment."

Leo wanted to stay resolute. He wanted to believe in his friends, in the assurances that they had given him after watching his memories. But it was difficult. He'd spent so long believing that no one would ever really accept him if they knew all that he had done, all that he was capable of doing to hurt them whether he wanted to or not.

"You know, after all the hassle you caused me, getting me sent to jail was really rubbing salt in the wound." Teresa mused, before picking up a container that had been tucked into the corner by the bath.

"Count this as returning the favour." The tub was upended into the bath, and Leo shrieked. Salt filtered into the wounds on his chest and Leo thrashed urgently trying to get as much of the stinging mixture away from the open cuts as possible.

Eventually Leo was positioned with his hips on the rim of the bath and his back arched. This position stretched the cuts which wasn't much better, and his hair skimmed the water as he perched precariously. Falling now could be fatal as his hands weren't loose to catch him.

As Leo had squirmed, Teresa had clapped as if this was the best play she had ever seen.

Cormac wasn't as impressed when he thundered up the stairs.

"We need to keep him quiet! Anyone could hear him speaking and then we're both screwed." Rolling her eyes, Teresa truly looked like the petty bitch that she should have left behind in her teenage years.

"It's Halloween. Screaming is expected." Not appeased by this, Cormac glared at his girlfriend.

"You've had your fun, just go put him in the closet." This almost caused Leo to slip and plunge back into the bath. They couldn't put him in a closet. Unwillingly, Leo recalled the time during the memory incident that Hazel ended up inside his head. Part of him had stayed in the closet, even after all these years, screaming at the monsters that his mind conjured up. During that fun trip through Leo's skull, Leo's fire powers had had as starring role in his fears, and was partially the reason why Leo always tried to keep part of himself locked away. The reason why the child could never truly escape the locked closet.

Nowadays, Leo had come to accept his fire powers as part of him, thanks to his friend's reassurance, but Leo still feared the monsters in the closet.

The paralysing horror that swept through him was enough to shred the majority of his courage, and his pride.

"Please don't." He rasped. His voice was subdued, but the quarrelling couple both shut up and turned towards him.

Then they laughed in sync.

"Wow, you weren't kidding when you said the brat pees his pants at the thought of a closet." Cormac jeered. Shame coloured Leo's cheeks from his natural brown to an almost unnatural red. He knew then that he was going to be tucked away in the closet, and he wouldn't even know how long for.

Please, he prayed, please let my friends find me. Silent tears fell down his face as he was removed from the tub.

Harley's P.O.V

The walk was fraught with tension, which escalated when Harley came to a halt in front of an ordinary looking house.

"He's in here." Harley hadn't been sure what to expect when they found Leo, but he did lean towards it being a monster attack. His big brother was one of the strongest demigods of their generation, only a problematic monster could take him on. Or at least, that's what Harley believed.

But why would a monster have brought him to a place like this?

His train of thought was interrupted by Jake stepping forwards to ruffle his hair.

"Good work Harley." Usually praise from one of his siblings would fill him with pride, especially if it was directed towards one of his inventions, but now Harley just wanted to get Leo.

"Are you sure?" Harley knew that the seven were worried as well, and that Annabeth was probably just expressing it by seeking confirmation of facts, but Harley knew his brother was in that house. Not just because of his sensor, but because something inside of his gut was screaming at him that Leo was not only inside, but that he needed his help.

"He's sure." Nyssa answered quickly. Obviously, she had the same gut feeling as Harley.

"Okay, guys step back." Jason instructed. Harley and his sibling moved away from the door quickly. This allowed Jason to kick it with the force of a gale wind behind his foot. Needless to say, the door didn't just open, it tore away from its hinges and skidded down the hallway.

"Cool." Harley couldn't help saying this, Jason was awesome. And furious. Harley snuck a glance at the other demigods present, taking in their matching looks of surprise and awe. Then all of their faces switched to looks of grim determination and poorly concealed rage. Weapons were drawn as eleven demigods charged the house.

At the sound of the door taking flight down the hallway, a bulky man had hurtled down the stairs. And he was just that, a bulky man. Harley could sense nothing to imply that the man was a monster.

"You." The young son of Hephaestus jerked at the pure venom in Piper's voice. The confusion doubled at the looks of absolute loathing the seven (currently six) were giving the man.

His siblings and the other two demigods also looked baffled. They were all furious at this man for taking Leo, but the others were acting as if they knew him.

A woman followed behind him, and the intensity of the hateful stares increased, but they were also mixed with pure terror. Exclamations of disbelief could be heard from the six that seemed to know the two adults, but Harley's sensor was telling him that Leo was upstairs and so he bolted past the kidnappers. They could be dealt with in a minute, Harley needed to see Leo.

He was vaguely aware of the other four (those that weren't caught in some sort of disbelieving standoff) hot on his heels, but Harley was set on his goal.

There was an open door to his left and Harley quickly checked it to see if the fire-user was in there. He wasn't, but what Harley did see made him stop right in his tracks. He knew that he was trembling when Jake wrapped his arm around him.

"Oh Gods, Harley, look away." Harley wanted to, he really did, but somehow his eyes were riveted on the scene before him. In his short lifetime, Harley had seen wars and battles a plenty. Yet this weakened his knees. He would have fallen if Jake didn't forcibly pick him up and clutch him to his chest, face turned away from the bathroom.

He could hear sniffles, and although some of them were him, he could feel Jake's shaking shoulders, and the slightly higher set had to be Nyssa. Nico and Will were cursing viciously.

The bathroom was a red splattered nightmare. In all honestly, there wasn't a tremendous amount of blood, but the majority of it rested at the bottom of the tub, congealing with what looked like salt dusted on top of it. Evidently the tub had held water which had been forced over the side, red and pink waves seeping across the white floor and beginning to dry on the tiles.

"Come on. Will can fix him up. We just need to find him." Nico's words were logical, but his tone spoke of a churning anger just waiting to escape.

They split up to check the other doors on the floor, there were only three left and the sensor couldn't quite pick up on which it was exactly.

Will and Nyssa took the first door, with Will resting a supportive hand on her shoulder. Nico approached the second, and Jake carried Harley to the final door.

Entering, both brothers immediately picked up on the smell of burning.

Harley tightened his grip on his brother's shoulders, but he shuffled about enough to be able to see that they were in an apparently disused bedroom.

And in the back of the bedroom was a closet, the doors blocked by a small but sturdy dresser. A black mark was spreading across the barricaded door. Sobbing could be heard from behind the doors, and Jake placed Harley on the floor and darted towards the dresser, shoving it to the side with a desperate blacksmith's strength.

Harley raced forwards, tugging the doors open the moment that Jake shoved the stupid dresser far enough out the way.

Curled up on the floor of the small enclosure was Leo, but Harley could barely see him through the flames.

Eerily, the flames where everywhere, but they barely seemed to be doing anything to the surroundings.

Harley gulped as he looked at his brother and Jake called out for the others to join them.

Leo was not okay.

* * *

That's an especially evil place to leave it, I know, but I swear the other part will be out soon. I hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you next time.


End file.
